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With the recent history of increasing EU fines, this has to be worrying. Also, i realize the article is not legally informed but the opening question seems lik

With the recent history of increasing EU fines, this has to be worrying. Also, i realize the article is not legally informed but the opening question seems like a slam dunk against AMZN >to investigate whether the company is using sales data to gain an unfair advantage over smaller sellers on the Marketplace platform I suppose the question is not whether they have an advantage, but whether its unfair or not.

simion314 7y ago
>With the recent history of increasing EU fines, this has to be worrying. The article mentions that Amazon just made some changes because of a similar accusation from Germany, so there is no huge fine first and then you fix your stuff, from what I seen so far the big scare that EU is trying to milk US companies with huge fines for small issues without warring is just FUD.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Buetol 7y ago
  FYI, that's what the US does already and big time. They racket companies with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it has always been applied to foreign and strategic companies. Recently the U.S. even emprisoned a french just to put pressure and aquire Alstom, an extremely strategic french company [0] (nuclear reactor, trains,...) So, EU fighting back doesn't suprise me ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstom#Acquisition_by_General_Electric https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstom#Acquisition_by_General_... A good source but in french: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dejeVuL9-7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dejeVuL9-7c
  - ApolloFortyNine 7y ago
    I don't see anywhere claiming the U.S emprisoned a French citizen to put pressure on this issue.
    - Buetol 7y ago
      Oops, it's only in the french version, here's an article about that: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-15/-the-american-trap-an-executive-s-view-from-a-u-s-prison-cell https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-15/-the-amer...
      - gamblor956 7y ago
        Are you seriously citing an opinion piece written by one of the executives that admitted to bribing foreign officials as evidence that the US applied pressure to push through a partial acquisition of the executive's former employer? Most importantly--the details of the article cited in relation to the GE deal (i.e., the claims that the CEO pushed through the GE deal due to US pressure) ignore the fact that the French government was the one that ultimately blocked the competing EU bids, even though the company itself favored the Siemens bid.
        Buetol 7y ago
        It's an opinion piece about a book, the american trap, which is a demonstration of the US being the bully of the world and racketing every country which make more sense to me that the french government choosing the wrong deal by incompetence
        gamblor956 7y ago
        Money had a large part to do with it. GM upped their bid after the Siemens offer and Siemens didn't respond in kind. GM now admits they severely overpaid for the French company and in hindsight should have let Siemens buy it because the French assets they acquired were a serious drag on the performance of the post-acquisition GM Power subsidiary.
        Buetol 7y ago
        I guess that's why they are firing more than 1000 people right now in France, the people building nuclear reactor turbines. Or maybe because it's more strategic to produce those in the US so the french can be at their mercy, I don't know what makes the most sense. Especially since the US tried to bully France when they refused to go to Irak with them, they halted all military exports to France but we are independent enought that it didn't do any dommage.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    FYI, that's what the US does already and big time. They racket companies with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it has always been applied to foreign and strategic companies. The FCPA just bans bribes and other crimes that are also illegal in the US. Most foreign companies do not get hit with FCPA violations. Just the ones that use bribes as a part of doing business. Alstrom's not a great example, since they were also charged by the UK over their corrupt business practices. The FPCA violations weren't levied on Alstrom to push through a US acquisition; the FCPA investigation began years before. And ultimately, GE only acquired a part of Alstrom, after competing bids from EU companies were blocked by the French government.
- pmlnr 7y ago
  > EU is trying to milk US companies You know, if those US companies would pay the tax they should, similarly to the small companies, these may not be necessary.
  - vixen99 7y ago
    Factored into this argument should be the fact that Google for one, offers a search service which is so popular it's used for 90% of searches in France - and it's totally free and creates an immense amount of knock-on value.
    - Tomte 7y ago
      No, it shouldn't. Even useful businesses have to pay taxes. Unless Google wants to become a charitable non-profit, the idea that they pay their taxes just by doing regular business is preposterous.
    - hn23 7y ago
      Something sponsored through Ads is not free. You pay for it when you buy products.
  - Nasrudith 7y ago
    The way that is fixed is changing the tax laws so they "pay what they should" - not vaguely pretextual shakedowns to try to score political points. It isn't neccessary. Legally US companies are doing exactly what they should even if it involves bullshit loopholes like Double Dutch Irish or large licensing fees. If they weren't then there would many within facing charges of tax evasion. The actual solution would involve closing loopholes with things like excluding license fees and business from profit reductions for tax purposes.
    - simion314 7y ago
      OP is bringing the taxes in an unrelated topic. I agree the solution is to pass laws to close all this loopholes.

simion314 7y ago

>With the recent history of increasing EU fines, this has to be worrying. The article mentions that Amazon just made some changes because of a similar accusation from Germany, so there is no huge fine first and then you fix your stuff, from what I seen so far the big scare that EU is trying to milk US companies with huge fines for small issues without warring is just FUD.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Buetol 7y ago
FYI, that's what the US does already and big time. They racket companies with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it has always been applied to foreign and strategic companies. Recently the U.S. even emprisoned a french just to put pressure and aquire Alstom, an extremely strategic french company [0] (nuclear reactor, trains,...) So, EU fighting back doesn't suprise me ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstom#Acquisition_by_General_Electric https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstom#Acquisition_by_General_... A good source but in french: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dejeVuL9-7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dejeVuL9-7c
- ApolloFortyNine 7y ago
  I don't see anywhere claiming the U.S emprisoned a French citizen to put pressure on this issue.
  - Buetol 7y ago
    Oops, it's only in the french version, here's an article about that: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-15/-the-american-trap-an-executive-s-view-from-a-u-s-prison-cell https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-15/-the-amer...
    - gamblor956 7y ago
      Are you seriously citing an opinion piece written by one of the executives that admitted to bribing foreign officials as evidence that the US applied pressure to push through a partial acquisition of the executive's former employer? Most importantly--the details of the article cited in relation to the GE deal (i.e., the claims that the CEO pushed through the GE deal due to US pressure) ignore the fact that the French government was the one that ultimately blocked the competing EU bids, even though the company itself favored the Siemens bid.
      - Buetol 7y ago
        It's an opinion piece about a book, the american trap, which is a demonstration of the US being the bully of the world and racketing every country which make more sense to me that the french government choosing the wrong deal by incompetence
        gamblor956 7y ago
        Money had a large part to do with it. GM upped their bid after the Siemens offer and Siemens didn't respond in kind. GM now admits they severely overpaid for the French company and in hindsight should have let Siemens buy it because the French assets they acquired were a serious drag on the performance of the post-acquisition GM Power subsidiary.
        Buetol 7y ago
        I guess that's why they are firing more than 1000 people right now in France, the people building nuclear reactor turbines. Or maybe because it's more strategic to produce those in the US so the french can be at their mercy, I don't know what makes the most sense. Especially since the US tried to bully France when they refused to go to Irak with them, they halted all military exports to France but we are independent enought that it didn't do any dommage.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  FYI, that's what the US does already and big time. They racket companies with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it has always been applied to foreign and strategic companies. The FCPA just bans bribes and other crimes that are also illegal in the US. Most foreign companies do not get hit with FCPA violations. Just the ones that use bribes as a part of doing business. Alstrom's not a great example, since they were also charged by the UK over their corrupt business practices. The FPCA violations weren't levied on Alstrom to push through a US acquisition; the FCPA investigation began years before. And ultimately, GE only acquired a part of Alstrom, after competing bids from EU companies were blocked by the French government.
pmlnr 7y ago
> EU is trying to milk US companies You know, if those US companies would pay the tax they should, similarly to the small companies, these may not be necessary.
- vixen99 7y ago
  Factored into this argument should be the fact that Google for one, offers a search service which is so popular it's used for 90% of searches in France - and it's totally free and creates an immense amount of knock-on value.
  - Tomte 7y ago
    No, it shouldn't. Even useful businesses have to pay taxes. Unless Google wants to become a charitable non-profit, the idea that they pay their taxes just by doing regular business is preposterous.
  - hn23 7y ago
    Something sponsored through Ads is not free. You pay for it when you buy products.
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  The way that is fixed is changing the tax laws so they "pay what they should" - not vaguely pretextual shakedowns to try to score political points. It isn't neccessary. Legally US companies are doing exactly what they should even if it involves bullshit loopholes like Double Dutch Irish or large licensing fees. If they weren't then there would many within facing charges of tax evasion. The actual solution would involve closing loopholes with things like excluding license fees and business from profit reductions for tax purposes.
  - simion314 7y ago
    OP is bringing the taxes in an unrelated topic. I agree the solution is to pass laws to close all this loopholes.