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If you accept business from UK customers and take their money or data you need to comply with UK law, as well as collect & pay VAT to the UK. This is more obvio

by deno 3y ago

If you accept business from UK customers and take their money or data you need to comply with UK law, as well as collect & pay VAT to the UK. This is more obvious in meatspace, for example it’s obvious that Chinese companies are not allowed to send children toys containing lead to EU markets. Your country of incorporation likely has an international free trade agreement with UK that you can read for details. Basically, you only need to incorporate in UK or establish a foreign branch if you need offices in UK or want to hire someone from UK (even remotely). The only way to opt-out is to block UK users.

BLKNSLVR 3y ago
> need to comply Define "need". If there's no legal jurisdiction, where is this "need"? If a company wants to follow the rules, sure, it will so the thing. But otherwise, is there international legal jurisdiction that covers, for example, a company in Seychelles offering e2e encrypted comms that has users in the UK? Isn't it up to the UK to put in place blocking technology or laws that prohibit specific app usage? I'm kinda thinking about the US TikTok situation. What if the service is free, like Signal and WhatsApp? (and TikTok)
- deno 3y ago
  Sure, UK will just block you and they will compel app stores to remove you if they want to. That’s what they are doing with tracker websites already. > Define "need". If there's no legal jurisdiction, As I have explained your country has an agreement with UK that says they do have the right to make you follow their rules if you want to trade on their market. So they can sue you and your country will say yup that’s fine they can do that. It’s a mutual agreement, so your country can do the same if some UK company decides they don’t want to pay your taxes. There are also mutual agreements about establishing foreign branches & incorporating by foreign persons or companies and UK could demand you must do that as well, if they wanted to. If there were no diplomatic relations or the country you’re exporting services to was sanctioned then it would be illegal for you to serve or trade with any citizens of that country. Anyway regardless as before even if you find a country that you think is safe they can still just block your IP range and remove your app, but then you’re clearly not just doing regular business—this was about actual companies operating internationally, so this is a different goalpost. I mean sure, that’s how internet works, but that was already a given. Also unless you actually live and manage your company from Seychelles or Russia then you should be careful because there are all kinds of laws about creating fictional entities (though mostly concerning avoiding taxes) and you could still be personally liable. > What if the service is free, like Signal and WhatsApp? (and TikTok) Certainly WhatsApp isn’t free, you pay with ad impressions and user data. UK can demand you pay tax on that and calculate how much you make for each of their citizens. EU’s doing it already, it’s called EU Digital Tax. Signal has some crypto stuff, they might want to monetize more. Anyway it doesn’t matter, just look at GDPR and how US companies treat it for real-world analog.

by deno 3y ago

BLKNSLVR 3y ago

> need to comply Define "need". If there's no legal jurisdiction, where is this "need"? If a company wants to follow the rules, sure, it will so the thing. But otherwise, is there international legal jurisdiction that covers, for example, a company in Seychelles offering e2e encrypted comms that has users in the UK? Isn't it up to the UK to put in place blocking technology or laws that prohibit specific app usage? I'm kinda thinking about the US TikTok situation. What if the service is free, like Signal and WhatsApp? (and TikTok)

deno 3y ago
Sure, UK will just block you and they will compel app stores to remove you if they want to. That’s what they are doing with tracker websites already. > Define "need". If there's no legal jurisdiction, As I have explained your country has an agreement with UK that says they do have the right to make you follow their rules if you want to trade on their market. So they can sue you and your country will say yup that’s fine they can do that. It’s a mutual agreement, so your country can do the same if some UK company decides they don’t want to pay your taxes. There are also mutual agreements about establishing foreign branches & incorporating by foreign persons or companies and UK could demand you must do that as well, if they wanted to. If there were no diplomatic relations or the country you’re exporting services to was sanctioned then it would be illegal for you to serve or trade with any citizens of that country. Anyway regardless as before even if you find a country that you think is safe they can still just block your IP range and remove your app, but then you’re clearly not just doing regular business—this was about actual companies operating internationally, so this is a different goalpost. I mean sure, that’s how internet works, but that was already a given. Also unless you actually live and manage your company from Seychelles or Russia then you should be careful because there are all kinds of laws about creating fictional entities (though mostly concerning avoiding taxes) and you could still be personally liable. > What if the service is free, like Signal and WhatsApp? (and TikTok) Certainly WhatsApp isn’t free, you pay with ad impressions and user data. UK can demand you pay tax on that and calculate how much you make for each of their citizens. EU’s doing it already, it’s called EU Digital Tax. Signal has some crypto stuff, they might want to monetize more. Anyway it doesn’t matter, just look at GDPR and how US companies treat it for real-world analog.