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The one example listed in the article was starlink. What other "Big Tech" could even be realistically dinged by this? How do you tariff Adsense from google? Or

The one example listed in the article was starlink. What other "Big Tech" could even be realistically dinged by this? How do you tariff Adsense from google? Or 3rd party cell phones that run Android? Will they slap an upcharge on netflix or Amazon prime somehow? How does suspending intellectual property rights work, also? That seems like a whole can of worms

flohofwoe 2y ago
One obvious option would be to add a couple of percent on each transaction in the EU (e.g. each time Apple and Google take their 30% the EU takes 5% or so), that way the requirement to open up the mobile platforms to alternative app stores would also finally make sense, since European app stores wouldn't be affected by the tarrifs.
- zonkerdonker 2y ago
  Sure, that makes sense, make the tax big enough to really hurt if they try to eat it. I guess if IP is off the table as well, nothing to stop someone from pirating every movie on netflix and launching a clone for EU! Im curious for some more details around this. I hope it turns out to be a nice big stick to smack some sense into the US tech oligarchs, and also their orange subordinate
esperent 2y ago
> How do you tariff Adsense from google Well, it's already subject to VAT, so I guess in much the same way as that?
- FirmwareBurner 2y ago
  VAT means taxes the EU consumers prices, not on Google's profits.
  - cjrp 2y ago
    True, but it's collected by Google and passed to the relevant government. So it would be similar (they just wouldn't add it to the price, as VAT is).
    - esperent 2y ago
      > it's collected by Google Not the case in at least some EU countries. Businesses are responsible for calculating the VAT and paying it themselves.
  - esperent 2y ago
    From a quick search I cannot find any examples of tariffs applied as a tax on a specific company's profits. They are commonly applied as a surcharge (charge on top of the business or consumer price of a good) on specific goods, which is exactly how VAT works across the EU. Tariffs can be applied in other ways too, such as a surtax (tax on top of another tax). But I don't think tax on profits is common, as that would give the foreign company too much leeway to fudge the numbers.
- zonkerdonker 2y ago
  I guess it just seems a bit pointless to attempt to tariff what is essentialy a monopoly. Google could pretty easily just pass on 100% of the costs of the tarrifs onto the consumer. Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if more American big corpos paid more taxes, I was just curious what this plan would even look like when/if it's enacted
  - AlecSchueler 2y ago
    Passing the cost onto the consumer is what makes the business look less appealing compared to local alternatives, helping to break the monopoly.
buyucu 2y ago
ban starlink, twitter and tesla. put a %26 tax on all advertisement on Meta and Google. Put a similar tax on all Amazon Prime and Netflix subscriptions. That should do the trick.

flohofwoe 2y ago

One obvious option would be to add a couple of percent on each transaction in the EU (e.g. each time Apple and Google take their 30% the EU takes 5% or so), that way the requirement to open up the mobile platforms to alternative app stores would also finally make sense, since European app stores wouldn't be affected by the tarrifs.

zonkerdonker 2y ago
Sure, that makes sense, make the tax big enough to really hurt if they try to eat it. I guess if IP is off the table as well, nothing to stop someone from pirating every movie on netflix and launching a clone for EU! Im curious for some more details around this. I hope it turns out to be a nice big stick to smack some sense into the US tech oligarchs, and also their orange subordinate

esperent 2y ago

> How do you tariff Adsense from google Well, it's already subject to VAT, so I guess in much the same way as that?

FirmwareBurner 2y ago
VAT means taxes the EU consumers prices, not on Google's profits.
- cjrp 2y ago
  True, but it's collected by Google and passed to the relevant government. So it would be similar (they just wouldn't add it to the price, as VAT is).
  - esperent 2y ago
    > it's collected by Google Not the case in at least some EU countries. Businesses are responsible for calculating the VAT and paying it themselves.
- esperent 2y ago
  From a quick search I cannot find any examples of tariffs applied as a tax on a specific company's profits. They are commonly applied as a surcharge (charge on top of the business or consumer price of a good) on specific goods, which is exactly how VAT works across the EU. Tariffs can be applied in other ways too, such as a surtax (tax on top of another tax). But I don't think tax on profits is common, as that would give the foreign company too much leeway to fudge the numbers.
zonkerdonker 2y ago
I guess it just seems a bit pointless to attempt to tariff what is essentialy a monopoly. Google could pretty easily just pass on 100% of the costs of the tarrifs onto the consumer. Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if more American big corpos paid more taxes, I was just curious what this plan would even look like when/if it's enacted
- AlecSchueler 2y ago
  Passing the cost onto the consumer is what makes the business look less appealing compared to local alternatives, helping to break the monopoly.

buyucu 2y ago

ban starlink, twitter and tesla. put a %26 tax on all advertisement on Meta and Google. Put a similar tax on all Amazon Prime and Netflix subscriptions. That should do the trick.