4 ms·

Theoretically, yes. But I am confident the EU would find other ways to extract fines from Google in that case.

by dahfizz 4y ago

stingraycharles 4y ago
“Extract fines” makes it sound like the EU is the evil one here, rather than Google abusing its position.
- dahfizz 4y ago
  The world is not a child's cartoon. It can be simultaneously true that Google is a scummy monopolist and the EU is not acting in good faith.
  - pmyteh 4y ago
    It's acting in good faith insofar as it does care about establishing transparent markets (and also protecting citizen privacy). It's fortunate (at least for itself) that these ambitions are entirely consistent with political expediency - which means they can pursue them without reserve. If an EU company did similar it might not be hit so hard (which would be hypocritical). But that doesn't make this action (a fine for obviously anticompetitive action) in bad faith, so much as it would make the other (lack of fine) so.
  - tremon 4y ago
    If you're accusing others of acting in bad faith you need to substantiate that. With a proper argument. Otherwise you're not acting in good faith yourself.
    - edgyquant 4y ago
      I wouldn’t use the term bad faith but it’s clear the EU wants American big tech out
      - kergonath 4y ago
        The EU very regularly fines European companies. AFAIK there is no statistics showing a preference towards investigating American companies. Though that is certainly the case for large software companies, simply by due to the fact that there are more of them and with larger revenues than European ones. Have you any evidence, numerical or otherwise, to substantiate your assertion?
      - oblio 4y ago
        The EU doesn't want big tech out. It wants big tech abusers out. And guess what, most of those big tech abusers are American. But if it helps with anything, it doesn't look too kindly upon Chinese companies, either. It can't really do much about European big tech companies since there aren't that many left... and they're in enterprise markets where things work completely differently (enterprises can sue you themselves very efficiently if they're disadvantaged, thank you very much).
  - krzyk 4y ago
    Yes, but this Google. They are far away from having consumers as their top priority. And this is EU, which mostly does have them as top priority.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
StingyJelly 4y ago
As a counterexample there's Apple with not insignificant market share in Europe - pushing icloud, not supporting third party operating sysems or even sideloading, still keeping proprietary connector despite everyone else using usb-c, etc.
- at-fates-hands 4y ago
  Which kind of begs the question about the differences between a "walled garden" in a way to protect their users and what exactly amounts to anti-competitive business practices. Windows phones tried the Apple approach if I remember correctly when their phones were on the market and it wasn't enough to keep them competitive. They had a litany of other issues to boot, but taking the "walled garden" approach raised the ire of many developers.
- stingraycharles 4y ago
  For sure my recently bought iPad and Apple Watch use USB-C, so I think that part is not true. Arguably due to EU legislation.
  - StingyJelly 4y ago
    Yet the all new iphone 14 still uses lightning and I bet you and most apple watch owners also own an iphone.
- gls2ro 4y ago
  At the first Google search (irony) I found that apple is maybe around 30% maybe (depending on the source) a bit hight than Samsung which is pretty close. but when looking at iOS vs Android then we have 30% (iOS) vs 60% (Android). this does not look at all even close to a monopoly from Apple. As far as I see their power in Europe comes from the fact that competition is following them in some decisions.

Theoretically, yes. But I am confident the EU would find other ways to extract fines from Google in that case.

stingraycharles 4y ago

“Extract fines” makes it sound like the EU is the evil one here, rather than Google abusing its position.

dahfizz 4y ago
The world is not a child's cartoon. It can be simultaneously true that Google is a scummy monopolist and the EU is not acting in good faith.
- pmyteh 4y ago
  It's acting in good faith insofar as it does care about establishing transparent markets (and also protecting citizen privacy). It's fortunate (at least for itself) that these ambitions are entirely consistent with political expediency - which means they can pursue them without reserve. If an EU company did similar it might not be hit so hard (which would be hypocritical). But that doesn't make this action (a fine for obviously anticompetitive action) in bad faith, so much as it would make the other (lack of fine) so.
- tremon 4y ago
  If you're accusing others of acting in bad faith you need to substantiate that. With a proper argument. Otherwise you're not acting in good faith yourself.
  - edgyquant 4y ago
    I wouldn’t use the term bad faith but it’s clear the EU wants American big tech out
    - kergonath 4y ago
      The EU very regularly fines European companies. AFAIK there is no statistics showing a preference towards investigating American companies. Though that is certainly the case for large software companies, simply by due to the fact that there are more of them and with larger revenues than European ones. Have you any evidence, numerical or otherwise, to substantiate your assertion?
    - oblio 4y ago
      The EU doesn't want big tech out. It wants big tech abusers out. And guess what, most of those big tech abusers are American. But if it helps with anything, it doesn't look too kindly upon Chinese companies, either. It can't really do much about European big tech companies since there aren't that many left... and they're in enterprise markets where things work completely differently (enterprises can sue you themselves very efficiently if they're disadvantaged, thank you very much).
- krzyk 4y ago
  Yes, but this Google. They are far away from having consumers as their top priority. And this is EU, which mostly does have them as top priority.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

StingyJelly 4y ago

As a counterexample there's Apple with not insignificant market share in Europe - pushing icloud, not supporting third party operating sysems or even sideloading, still keeping proprietary connector despite everyone else using usb-c, etc.

at-fates-hands 4y ago
Which kind of begs the question about the differences between a "walled garden" in a way to protect their users and what exactly amounts to anti-competitive business practices. Windows phones tried the Apple approach if I remember correctly when their phones were on the market and it wasn't enough to keep them competitive. They had a litany of other issues to boot, but taking the "walled garden" approach raised the ire of many developers.
stingraycharles 4y ago
For sure my recently bought iPad and Apple Watch use USB-C, so I think that part is not true. Arguably due to EU legislation.
- StingyJelly 4y ago
  Yet the all new iphone 14 still uses lightning and I bet you and most apple watch owners also own an iphone.
gls2ro 4y ago
At the first Google search (irony) I found that apple is maybe around 30% maybe (depending on the source) a bit hight than Samsung which is pretty close. but when looking at iOS vs Android then we have 30% (iOS) vs 60% (Android). this does not look at all even close to a monopoly from Apple. As far as I see their power in Europe comes from the fact that competition is following them in some decisions.