4 ms·

That is exactly what happened the last few times this was tried. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/link-tax-experiences-germany-spain-article-11-ec-proposal-tani/

That is exactly what happened the last few times this was tried. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/link-tax-experiences-germany-spain-article-11-ec-proposal-tani/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/link-tax-experiences-germany-... Germany's experience: Google did not display news snippets from publishers unless they waived their right to be paid. They all eventually capitulated. Spain's experience: the Spanish version of this law did not have an opt out provision. Thus, Google News simply closed shop in Spain. For some reason, the regulators do not believe Google when Google says they do not make money on Google News. But it is true. Google News is a "halo" property. Like Google Keep, it isn't itself a money-making endeavor. Google pays for it on the theory that providing that service will make the overall suite of services more compelling to users. But it's not worth much to Google, and you can see this by the paucity of Google's investment in the property compared to almost anything else. Maybe the theory is that Google will stay in business and pay because they're worried about competitors filling the gap? But if this service is not economically viable for Google to run, how could it possibly be more viable for a competitor to step into this space? The outcome of a link tax will simply be that Google News ceases to operate in the EU, is my bet. That's a fine result for some people, although I doubt it's the intended one. But I guess that the EU politicians and bureaucrats will delude themselves into believing some other outcome is possible until the very moment it happens. Thing that really makes this puzzling is Google News barely shows snippets any more. At least when I load the page, it only shows article titles. The publishers and regulators are such fools on this topic. They think people need the news. The opposite is the truth. The news needs viewers. If it's harder to find interesting news, people spend their time on something else.

cronix 8y ago
Here's an article to buttress your point re: what google search could look like to the EU. I applaud their approach. Personally I'd like to see a bigger point made, and just delist them period. Want to show up in our search results at all? Pay us. Or show them in redacted format where everything is just blacked out so you know something exists but can't get to it. Or just have a "this result was blocked due to xyz directive, read about it here..." https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/17/18186879/google-eu-copyright-laws-search-news-link-tax https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/17/18186879/google-eu-copyri...
Mirioron 8y ago
EU politicians never care about collateral damage. Think about the cookie law or when they changed how VAT works for digital purchases. It took them years to hear the complaint from small and micro businesses about how the change is killing their business.
- Brakenshire 8y ago
  Is that sales tax thing still a major problem? All you need to do is determine location (through IP, credit card etc) then do a lookup in a library, then add the relevant amount to the price. In principle it’s an important idea, otherwise all online retailers will set themselves up in a zero tax domicile and get an unjustified 5-20% advantage over local retailers.
  - jakub_g 8y ago
    > determine location through credit card Displaying the final price _after_ the user has put the CC number is not the most trustworthy experience :) I don't know how this is done in the wild, but some large companies often have TLDs per country and only accept CCs from a given country on a given site version, for example (and they redirect you by IP).
    - Brakenshire 8y ago
      Hah, yes, that’s true, but you could just have a country selector mechanism before showing the price, prepopulated from IP, then validate that for regulatory purposes using the credit card.
    - AnssiH 8y ago
      Another way to deal with that (which e.g. Amazon uses in Europe for international Prime Video and Music Unlimited) is to use a fixed inc.VAT price and then just have the exc.VAT price vary by country.
  - Mirioron 8y ago
    >Is that sales tax thing still a major problem? All you need to do is determine location (through IP, credit card etc) then do a lookup in a library, then add the relevant amount to the price. Yes, it is. Let's say you're running a one man business selling digital knitting patterns. Before the law you could sell to anyone in the EU and you'd only have to deal with your own country's tax authority. After the law you had to deal with the tax authority of every single EU country you had a buyer in. Is it worth selling 10 patterns to Lithuania? No, because filing taxes to the Lithuanian tax authority is more expensive than what you would've made from the sales. Thus, you don't sell to Lithuania. There was no minimum threshold. Earned €0.01 from another country? Better file those taxes. Almost every single country has a minimum VAT threshold, but EU politicians in their infinite wisdom didn't think of that. This situation persisted until this year, where there's finally a minimum VAT threshold in place. It's low (€10,000) but at least it's something. It only took them FOUR YEARS to do this. I wonder how many micro and small businesses closed as a result.

cronix 8y ago

Here's an article to buttress your point re: what google search could look like to the EU. I applaud their approach. Personally I'd like to see a bigger point made, and just delist them period. Want to show up in our search results at all? Pay us. Or show them in redacted format where everything is just blacked out so you know something exists but can't get to it. Or just have a "this result was blocked due to xyz directive, read about it here..." https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/17/18186879/google-eu-copyright-laws-search-news-link-tax https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/17/18186879/google-eu-copyri...

Mirioron 8y ago

EU politicians never care about collateral damage. Think about the cookie law or when they changed how VAT works for digital purchases. It took them years to hear the complaint from small and micro businesses about how the change is killing their business.

Brakenshire 8y ago
Is that sales tax thing still a major problem? All you need to do is determine location (through IP, credit card etc) then do a lookup in a library, then add the relevant amount to the price. In principle it’s an important idea, otherwise all online retailers will set themselves up in a zero tax domicile and get an unjustified 5-20% advantage over local retailers.
- jakub_g 8y ago
  > determine location through credit card Displaying the final price _after_ the user has put the CC number is not the most trustworthy experience :) I don't know how this is done in the wild, but some large companies often have TLDs per country and only accept CCs from a given country on a given site version, for example (and they redirect you by IP).
  - Brakenshire 8y ago
    Hah, yes, that’s true, but you could just have a country selector mechanism before showing the price, prepopulated from IP, then validate that for regulatory purposes using the credit card.
  - AnssiH 8y ago
    Another way to deal with that (which e.g. Amazon uses in Europe for international Prime Video and Music Unlimited) is to use a fixed inc.VAT price and then just have the exc.VAT price vary by country.
- Mirioron 8y ago
  >Is that sales tax thing still a major problem? All you need to do is determine location (through IP, credit card etc) then do a lookup in a library, then add the relevant amount to the price. Yes, it is. Let's say you're running a one man business selling digital knitting patterns. Before the law you could sell to anyone in the EU and you'd only have to deal with your own country's tax authority. After the law you had to deal with the tax authority of every single EU country you had a buyer in. Is it worth selling 10 patterns to Lithuania? No, because filing taxes to the Lithuanian tax authority is more expensive than what you would've made from the sales. Thus, you don't sell to Lithuania. There was no minimum threshold. Earned €0.01 from another country? Better file those taxes. Almost every single country has a minimum VAT threshold, but EU politicians in their infinite wisdom didn't think of that. This situation persisted until this year, where there's finally a minimum VAT threshold in place. It's low (€10,000) but at least it's something. It only took them FOUR YEARS to do this. I wonder how many micro and small businesses closed as a result.