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The necessary song and dance to start a process that in a year and change will cost Google a "record fine". That what happens when the unofficale mandate is to

by srkmno 8y ago

The necessary song and dance to start a process that in a year and change will cost Google a "record fine". That what happens when the unofficale mandate is to counter the success of US tech companies in the eurozone: first endow the commission with broad enforcement powers, then pursue every frivolous complaint. Come to think about it I've built an image search engine recently, maybe I should lodge a complaint about Google for their images "vertical" search function. This whole thing is ridiculous.

ehsankia 8y ago
Is there a point as which Google is just running profit negative in Europe, and they are better off just pulling off business from there? I'd love to see how much of their economy would collapse without Google, let alone citizen unrest. Just a small instance of snippet tax was shutdown pretty damn quick to the impact, imagine the impact of all of Google being pulled out of Europe.
- thomasz 8y ago
  Yes, definitely. There would be unrest, rioting, insurrection, and finally, civil war. Europe would be torn apart, the economy reduced to primitive agriculture. The European people will offer their prettiest daughters to Page and Brin, draped in blue, red, yellow and green veils to win back the favour of their distant and angry masters.
  - joejerryronnie 8y ago
    Don’t forget goats. I can’t imagine how many goats Larry and Sergey would be the proud owners of after this stunt.
- dazc 8y ago
  People would still use Google though and be unlikely to notice any difference. Plenty of data centres outside of the EU's jurisdiction and many a lot closer to the user than Dublin.
  - thomasz 8y ago
    I’m dead certain that the physical location of the servers is irrelevant. As long as google is taking money from European companies for showing ads to European users, the EU will assert its authority to regulate commerce. Therefore, a hypothetical Google facing crippling fines and unwilling to change, would likely drop service for European customers. Which, in turn, would flock over to competitors who are willing to accept European regulations in order to compete on the European market.
    - toast0 8y ago
      If Google abandoned all corporate presence in Europe, including shutting its offices, datacenters, pops, and corporations, and its officers never visit, the EU would have a hard time asserting anything. Unless they were willing to enforce internet blocking or assess fees against those companies advertising on Google.
- simion314 8y ago
  No, I assume Google has many customers that pay for the services, they can afford to dial down the crap to keep the more profitable things.
thomasz 8y ago
The mandate is to regulate monopolies. Regulation is always easier if the company isn't a key player in your own economy - just compare the fines against Volkswagen in the US and Germany. And honestly, I don't think this is ridiculous at all. At least not more ridiculous than the case against Microsoft for bundling IE with windows. The only ridiculous thing is that the US has stopped any pretence of regulating monopolies by itself.
- dahfizz 8y ago
  > The only ridiculous thing is that the US has stopped any pretence of regulating monopolies by itself. The difference is that US antitrust laws require the consumer to be harmed. I think it's pretty easy to make the argument that everyone uses Google, not because they are compelled to, but because they want to because Google is better than the competition. Consumers are better off with the superior product that Google provides. On the other hand, EU antitrust laws let them attack companies just for being big. This seems ridiculous to me because, often times, a company is big because consumers prefer it. Having a 'hobble the leader' economy necessarily hurts the consumers that want the better product from the bigger company.
  - thomasz 8y ago
    The anti trust case against Microsoft was built on the fact that they bundled IE with windows. For free.
pgeorgi 8y ago
The search engine investigations seem to be an American tech proxy war, too: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/02/28/google-still-abusing-search-engine-monopoly-rivals-tell-eu/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/02/28/google-sti... indicates that one of the bigger complainants is the Fairsearch consortium, which seems to be influenced by Oracle and Microsoft (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairSearch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairSearch)
- AnaniasAnanas 8y ago
  > In September 2012 Oracle and Nokia joined[9] in filing a complaint regarding Android with the European Commission, alleging that its free-of-charge distribution model constituted anti-competitive predatory pricing A "consumer protection" organization, huh? I do wonder how these lobbying organizations are even legal.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    I think the EU position is that companies are gonna lobby anyway, and it's preferable that they are transparent about it. FairSearch seems quite clear in its motives and members.

by srkmno 8y ago

ehsankia 8y ago

Is there a point as which Google is just running profit negative in Europe, and they are better off just pulling off business from there? I'd love to see how much of their economy would collapse without Google, let alone citizen unrest. Just a small instance of snippet tax was shutdown pretty damn quick to the impact, imagine the impact of all of Google being pulled out of Europe.

thomasz 8y ago
Yes, definitely. There would be unrest, rioting, insurrection, and finally, civil war. Europe would be torn apart, the economy reduced to primitive agriculture. The European people will offer their prettiest daughters to Page and Brin, draped in blue, red, yellow and green veils to win back the favour of their distant and angry masters.
- joejerryronnie 8y ago
  Don’t forget goats. I can’t imagine how many goats Larry and Sergey would be the proud owners of after this stunt.
dazc 8y ago
People would still use Google though and be unlikely to notice any difference. Plenty of data centres outside of the EU's jurisdiction and many a lot closer to the user than Dublin.
- thomasz 8y ago
  I’m dead certain that the physical location of the servers is irrelevant. As long as google is taking money from European companies for showing ads to European users, the EU will assert its authority to regulate commerce. Therefore, a hypothetical Google facing crippling fines and unwilling to change, would likely drop service for European customers. Which, in turn, would flock over to competitors who are willing to accept European regulations in order to compete on the European market.
  - toast0 8y ago
    If Google abandoned all corporate presence in Europe, including shutting its offices, datacenters, pops, and corporations, and its officers never visit, the EU would have a hard time asserting anything. Unless they were willing to enforce internet blocking or assess fees against those companies advertising on Google.
simion314 8y ago
No, I assume Google has many customers that pay for the services, they can afford to dial down the crap to keep the more profitable things.

thomasz 8y ago

The mandate is to regulate monopolies. Regulation is always easier if the company isn't a key player in your own economy - just compare the fines against Volkswagen in the US and Germany. And honestly, I don't think this is ridiculous at all. At least not more ridiculous than the case against Microsoft for bundling IE with windows. The only ridiculous thing is that the US has stopped any pretence of regulating monopolies by itself.

dahfizz 8y ago
> The only ridiculous thing is that the US has stopped any pretence of regulating monopolies by itself. The difference is that US antitrust laws require the consumer to be harmed. I think it's pretty easy to make the argument that everyone uses Google, not because they are compelled to, but because they want to because Google is better than the competition. Consumers are better off with the superior product that Google provides. On the other hand, EU antitrust laws let them attack companies just for being big. This seems ridiculous to me because, often times, a company is big because consumers prefer it. Having a 'hobble the leader' economy necessarily hurts the consumers that want the better product from the bigger company.
- thomasz 8y ago
  The anti trust case against Microsoft was built on the fact that they bundled IE with windows. For free.

pgeorgi 8y ago

The search engine investigations seem to be an American tech proxy war, too: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/02/28/google-still-abusing-search-engine-monopoly-rivals-tell-eu/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/02/28/google-sti... indicates that one of the bigger complainants is the Fairsearch consortium, which seems to be influenced by Oracle and Microsoft (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairSearch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairSearch)

AnaniasAnanas 8y ago
> In September 2012 Oracle and Nokia joined[9] in filing a complaint regarding Android with the European Commission, alleging that its free-of-charge distribution model constituted anti-competitive predatory pricing A "consumer protection" organization, huh? I do wonder how these lobbying organizations are even legal.
- icebraining 8y ago
  I think the EU position is that companies are gonna lobby anyway, and it's preferable that they are transparent about it. FairSearch seems quite clear in its motives and members.