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Amazon lobbyists to be barred from European parliament
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- IAMMidway 3y agoSeems really random to ban just one company. The article refuse to explain why this exact company and why not others. What are the rules?
- mtmail 3y agoIt's in the article "Since 2021, the ecommerce giant has failed to attend three meetings with the employment and social affairs committee" The quote from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39529974 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39529974 might be more clear "The move comes after Amazon’s repeated refusal to attend hearings in the European Parliament on working conditions in Amazon warehouses."
- suddenclarity 3y agoAs previously discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39535528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39535528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39529974 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39529974
- zoobab 3y agoThere are more lobbyists of foreign corporations (american ones) in Brussels than European ones. We should pass a "European Foreign Lobbyists Act", and send them back to their own country.
- ur-whale 3y ago>We should pass a "European Foreign Lobbyists Act", and send them back to their own country. Another way to look at it is that European companies are basically asleep at the wheel and should wake up and realize the nature of the game they're playing at before they get eaten alive. Might as well try an pass a law to get them to wake up and realize the world they operate in.
- thiago_fm 3y agoMost European companies doesn't have that huge international revenue that american companies have to afford it. Dollars are plenty, American companies keep using that advantage to get shit done here in the EU.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- the8472 3y agoIf the game leads to negative-sum outcomes it is the game that needs to be fixed, not the players.
- datadrivenangel 3y agoIf we started fixing lobbyists (in the pet sense of the term), we would probably get better results even if the game stayed the same.
- dns_snek 3y agoWhile we appreciate that the US operates on nightly/"alpha" releases of (often damaging) policies, laws, and so-called "innovations", we tend to prefer LTS releases in the EU. Thanks for your service. I can't possibly imagine what good Amazon's lobbying could do for our society, or any other corporate-sponsored lobbying, for that matter. I agree with the parent poster.
- hef19898 3y agoRemove "foreign" from your proposal, and I am all for it. But yeah, it is a start either way!
- nonethewiser 3y agoHow many large corporations capable of lobbying are there in Europe, and how many in the US? I looked and its hard to find definitive information on numbers of corporations. But I wouldnt be surprised if the US has more. Which would make the idea that there are more American lobbyists exactly what you should expect.
- Jensson 3y agoYou don't have to be large to do it, lobbying isn't expensive.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kgwxd 3y agoWhat positive role do lobbyists play in government? Why aren’t they just straight up illegal everywhere?
- thisgoesnowhere 3y agoIt's probably a good idea to get input from the people on the ground doing things. Lobbyists are not exactly that as currently formulatd, but they are supposed to be the way for companies to express their opinions. They have become pay to play by years and years of corruption and bribery.
- username332211 3y agoThey have become? Has it ever been different? I remember seeing texts from the 70s or 80s where the thesis was that regulation is either lobbied for by industry (and thus serving it) or created in complete ignorance of the actual situation in the industry (which usually also benefits industry, because in a market economy other people's ignorance is usually profitable).
- marchingkazoo 3y agoIn The States, it's an actual constitutional right. I won't try to justify how positive the role is or could be. However, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." A lobbyist's literal job is "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ysofunny 3y agowe gotta redraw the relationships between government, people, THE people, and business/corporations which behave like people but aren't actually individuals all as part of a renegiotiation of what "the public" actually means given that we have now digital internet, which forces a re-evaluation of what it evens means to "be in public" it's like there's two publics: digital (or cyber or virtual) and physical (in real world), but our laws are not aware of this??? dunno
- thiago_fm 3y agoThey'll keep laughing at the EU. They can eventually just find loopholes in local laws and hire everybody as a contractor. So that, they get a few euros more in exchange of peeing in bottles. American companies are so abusive, that's why I invest on them, there's no way any other local European company can do the same that American companies can do here. They play under different laws around the world. Nobody wants to say it, but I have the feeling countries eat it up because they need the tax revenue and bullets. It feels like the value of the dollar is backed by atomic bombs. I find it amusing how much leeway Big techs have in the EU, everybody else need to follow the law, as European companies know that if they do things in a bad way, they'll get wrecked, 100% chance. It doesn't feel like the EU is sovereign from the US, it's more like we're its vassal. They are above the rule of law and we're here to consume their shitty products. See how much VW lost in Dieselgate, I've never seen a big America-n company getting that kind of scrutiny over here. They give a single billion digit fine and move on, even though they keep not respecting rules regularly.
- wizzwizz4 3y ago> American companies are so abusive, that's why I invest on them, You don't think this is immoral?
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoSound investments and moral vetting often don't align. Some common examples: Housing equity competing with affordable housing. Stocks rise when new top management exploits existing resources for short term gains - making workers and products suffer. It's hard to retire on morals.
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago[dupe] More discussion over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39527379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39527379
- lkdfjlkdfjlg 3y agoDo you remember how there was a time when, every time the EU would do something that didn't allow US companies to get away with everything they wanted, you'd see people pouring on HN comments claiming how the evil red tape EU bureaucrats are just trying to bully poor US companies for money? That has changed, hasn't it? Around 2020?
- colpabar 3y agoyeah it was trump and the dark army thank god biden put an end to that
- lkdfjlkdfjlg 3y agoWhat a stupid take.
- DueDilligence 3y ago[dead]
- penguin_booze 3y ago"Instead of ploughing my fields, how dare you peasants make laws that stops me from doing whatever we want?" -- with regards, your friendly billionaire.
- geodel 3y agoHuh, its not really changed at all. People disagree with EU here aplenty all the time. The assumption that everyone has to agree with EU here is hilarious.
- lkdfjlkdfjlg 3y agoI'm not assuming that everyone has to agree with the EU. I'm saying that people used to cry about the EU like US companies were the victims, and you don't see that as much any more.
- fancyfredbot 3y agoI wonder why Amazon think that their best way of dealing with EU investigations into working conditions in their warehouses is not to turn up to committee meetings. If they attend then they can tell the committee that everything is great, how standards are improving, etc etc. Not showing up at all seems a bizarre strategy to me. What are they afraid of?
- snowpid 3y agoMy simple guess it is arrogance of the lobby department. We will see soon some layoffs...
- slipperybeluga 3y ago[dead]