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> Apple faces a €500 million fine for breaching the regulation’s rules for app stores, while Meta drew a penalty of €200 million for its "pay or consent" advert

> Apple faces a €500 million fine for breaching the regulation’s rules for app stores, while Meta drew a penalty of €200 million for its "pay or consent" advertising model, > The procedural fines fall short of the two giant penalties issued by the EU executive under its antitrust laws last year: €1.8 billion to Apple for abusing its dominant position while distributing music streaming apps, and €797 million to Meta for pushing its classified ads service on social media users. Really honest questions: are those fines actually paid, in practice ? Is there a way for a citizen to know ? (As in, do they appear in the public budget of the UE ?) Or are they somehow deducted from subsidies, added to taxes, etc... ? I know who collects taxes in France ("Le Tresor Public"). I don't know of a EU version of a treasury. Is it collected by one of the member states (Ireland, I would guess ?)

i_have_an_idea 1y ago
> somehow deducted from subsidies Do you think the EU subsidizes Meta/Apple.
- tomalbrc 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - bboygravity 1y ago
    No. The EU subsidizes electric vehicles. Not the same thing.
    - vanviegen 1y ago
      It pretty much was the same thing for years.
- phtrivier 1y ago
  Not necessarily Meta, but it's very much possible that a large company is the recipient of both EU subsidies and EU fines :)
nuthje 1y ago
> Fines imposed on undertakings found in breach of EU antitrust rules are paid into the general EU budget. This money is not earmarked for particular expenses, but Member States' contributions to the EU budget for the following year are reduced accordingly. The fines therefore help to finance the EU and reduce the burden for taxpayers. This quote is re: anti-trust, but likely generalizes. https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/index/fines_en#:~:text=Fines%20imposed%20on%20undertakings%20found,following%20year%20are%20reduced%20accordingly. https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/index/fines_en#:~:te...
- bboygravity 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - libertine 1y ago
    This is a recurring Russian propaganda point, now amplified by the new US Administration. I am curious about the basis for this. Could you explain further from your perspective how you came up with this conclusion?
    - theyknowitsxmas 1y ago
      Those pesky Russians and common sense of using #964B00 in your navbar then getting hit for 500 million is stupid.
      - libertine 1y ago
        It doesn't strike you odd that these claims pop up out of the blue when certain subjects are brought up? The answer could simply be: "oh it's just ignorance at play, and some people just repeat what they heard and made them feel good because it helped them cope/made them resentful/.." 100% of the time I had these engagements, these folks didn't even know what the EU was. Donald Trump is a great example of this, he has no clue what the EU is, nor how it came to be lmao
  - surgical_fire 1y ago
judge2020 1y ago
> "pay or consent" advertising model, Wait, so the EU has made it illegal to sell a paid service while also offering an alternative where the user pays via seeing ads?
- tantalor 1y ago
  It's not the ads you are consenting to, its the personal data collection and targeting. You could have non-personalized, or contextual ads. But those are much less effective.
  - cge 1y ago
    >You could have non-personalized, or contextual ads. But those are much less effective. This is always a bit frustrating to me, in that, if someone doesn't like personal data collection, they likely have enough blocked that the attempts at targeted advertisements are likely to be very ineffective. And even in spaces where there is little personal data available, online advertising still seems to desperately cling to targeting rather than context. I remember being struck by the contrast between the printed Times Literary Supplement, with advertisements for new book releases, conferences, cultural events, and so on, which all seem quite relevant to the audience, are often enjoyable and informative, and have directly motivated me to buy things, and the automated advertisements that were added to their podcast, for things like... a football-themed advertisement for a car dealership vaguely located near some rough geolocation of my IP address.
  - troupo 1y ago
    > You could have non-personalized, or contextual ads. But those are much less effective. This is a lie that has been perpetuated for a very long time. 1. There's no definite proof they are much less effective 2. Even if they are less effective, is it a bad trade-off when weighed against life-long pervasive and invasive tracking?
    - judge2020 1y ago
      > 2. Even if they are less effective, is it a bad trade-off when weighed against life-long pervasive and invasive tracking? You're talking benefits to society and/or the consumer; the only thing that matters is (often short-term) profits.

i_have_an_idea 1y ago

> somehow deducted from subsidies Do you think the EU subsidizes Meta/Apple.

tomalbrc 1y ago
[flagged]
- bboygravity 1y ago
  No. The EU subsidizes electric vehicles. Not the same thing.
  - vanviegen 1y ago
    It pretty much was the same thing for years.
phtrivier 1y ago
Not necessarily Meta, but it's very much possible that a large company is the recipient of both EU subsidies and EU fines :)

nuthje 1y ago

> Fines imposed on undertakings found in breach of EU antitrust rules are paid into the general EU budget. This money is not earmarked for particular expenses, but Member States' contributions to the EU budget for the following year are reduced accordingly. The fines therefore help to finance the EU and reduce the burden for taxpayers. This quote is re: anti-trust, but likely generalizes. https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/index/fines_en#:~:text=Fines%20imposed%20on%20undertakings%20found,following%20year%20are%20reduced%20accordingly. https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/index/fines_en#:~:te...

bboygravity 1y ago
[flagged]
- libertine 1y ago
  This is a recurring Russian propaganda point, now amplified by the new US Administration. I am curious about the basis for this. Could you explain further from your perspective how you came up with this conclusion?
  - theyknowitsxmas 1y ago
    Those pesky Russians and common sense of using #964B00 in your navbar then getting hit for 500 million is stupid.
    - libertine 1y ago
      It doesn't strike you odd that these claims pop up out of the blue when certain subjects are brought up? The answer could simply be: "oh it's just ignorance at play, and some people just repeat what they heard and made them feel good because it helped them cope/made them resentful/.." 100% of the time I had these engagements, these folks didn't even know what the EU was. Donald Trump is a great example of this, he has no clue what the EU is, nor how it came to be lmao
- surgical_fire 1y ago

judge2020 1y ago

> "pay or consent" advertising model, Wait, so the EU has made it illegal to sell a paid service while also offering an alternative where the user pays via seeing ads?

tantalor 1y ago
It's not the ads you are consenting to, its the personal data collection and targeting. You could have non-personalized, or contextual ads. But those are much less effective.
- cge 1y ago
  >You could have non-personalized, or contextual ads. But those are much less effective. This is always a bit frustrating to me, in that, if someone doesn't like personal data collection, they likely have enough blocked that the attempts at targeted advertisements are likely to be very ineffective. And even in spaces where there is little personal data available, online advertising still seems to desperately cling to targeting rather than context. I remember being struck by the contrast between the printed Times Literary Supplement, with advertisements for new book releases, conferences, cultural events, and so on, which all seem quite relevant to the audience, are often enjoyable and informative, and have directly motivated me to buy things, and the automated advertisements that were added to their podcast, for things like... a football-themed advertisement for a car dealership vaguely located near some rough geolocation of my IP address.
- troupo 1y ago
  > You could have non-personalized, or contextual ads. But those are much less effective. This is a lie that has been perpetuated for a very long time. 1. There's no definite proof they are much less effective 2. Even if they are less effective, is it a bad trade-off when weighed against life-long pervasive and invasive tracking?
  - judge2020 1y ago
    > 2. Even if they are less effective, is it a bad trade-off when weighed against life-long pervasive and invasive tracking? You're talking benefits to society and/or the consumer; the only thing that matters is (often short-term) profits.