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"antitrust fervor in Europe seems to have hit fever pitch. Apple, Google and Facebook are all subjects of investigation, and Amazon is now the focus of at least

"antitrust fervor in Europe seems to have hit fever pitch. Apple, Google and Facebook are all subjects of investigation, and Amazon is now the focus of at least three separate inquiries." It's no wonder why Europe is trailing so far behind in technology and innovation.

ionised 11y ago
Each of these companies direly needs investigation. The alternative is to let each of them get away with anti-competitive practices and privacy violations. The US tech industry is obviously leagues ahead of anywhere else in the world but it has brought some seriously shady anti-consumer goings on with it. In a toss up between adequate consumer protection and a heavily pro-corporate economy I'd side with the consumer every time and take the industry hit. Fortunately it's not a zero-sum game but the US is frighteningly lax on consumer protections in my view and it's festishisation of everything 'business' just leads to worsening standards for everybody. A lot of this has been brought up as a point of debate in the Eurpean TTIP opposition, specifically the US trying to push it's much lower standards on Europe to the detriment of the average citizen and the benefit of big business.
- dylanjermiah 11y ago
  What about Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon 'direly' needs investigation?(Genuinely curious) What can the government do to aid said problems?
  - ionised 11y ago
    Exactly what I said. Just a couple of examples I can remember from recent news; Facebook's facial recognition, data policy and tracking of all visitors whether they have a profile or not is against EU law, so they are being taken to court. This is a good thing in my opinion. We have slightly better privacy and data protection rules in the EU countries and rather than weaken them they need to be strengthened and enforced to protect citizens. The EU reponse has been to draft new data protection rules which are being debated currently. Microsoft was slapped with a heavy antitrust lawsuit years back and ended up paying a significant fine. This was the correct decision. Google are going through something similar at the moment although I am unsure of whether they should be found guilty or not. The point is, it's good that they are asking the antitrust question the first place. You can find a lot of examples of the conflict between EU data law and industry competition standards and these few particular massive technology companies. The question people would ask is whether the EU's laws on these matters are needlessly restrictive to businesses that operate in this industry. Perhaps parts of it are but I wouldn't say so myself. If anything they need to be made stronger. There's far too much emphasis on the corporation over the citizen already and we need to start going in the other direction (highlighted by the large opposition to TTIP). The downside might be that the EU countries never have a tech sector as great as the US but man, in the end it's worth it to protect the people from anti-consumer behaviour.
    - dylanjermiah 11y ago
      >The downside might be that the EU countries never have a tech sector as great as the US but man, in the end it's worth it to protect the people from anti-consumer behaviour. Thanks, and I can see your point. Except for this last part, I'm having a hard time understanding the rationale. Do you mind talking more about how more government intervention and regulation could benefit consumers, compared to the current situation. How will 'the people' be protected? How will the government make better decisions than they can make for themselves? I don't understand how a smaller technology sector correlates to less 'anti-consumer' behaviour by companies?

ionised 11y ago

Each of these companies direly needs investigation. The alternative is to let each of them get away with anti-competitive practices and privacy violations. The US tech industry is obviously leagues ahead of anywhere else in the world but it has brought some seriously shady anti-consumer goings on with it. In a toss up between adequate consumer protection and a heavily pro-corporate economy I'd side with the consumer every time and take the industry hit. Fortunately it's not a zero-sum game but the US is frighteningly lax on consumer protections in my view and it's festishisation of everything 'business' just leads to worsening standards for everybody. A lot of this has been brought up as a point of debate in the Eurpean TTIP opposition, specifically the US trying to push it's much lower standards on Europe to the detriment of the average citizen and the benefit of big business.

dylanjermiah 11y ago
What about Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon 'direly' needs investigation?(Genuinely curious) What can the government do to aid said problems?
- ionised 11y ago
  Exactly what I said. Just a couple of examples I can remember from recent news; Facebook's facial recognition, data policy and tracking of all visitors whether they have a profile or not is against EU law, so they are being taken to court. This is a good thing in my opinion. We have slightly better privacy and data protection rules in the EU countries and rather than weaken them they need to be strengthened and enforced to protect citizens. The EU reponse has been to draft new data protection rules which are being debated currently. Microsoft was slapped with a heavy antitrust lawsuit years back and ended up paying a significant fine. This was the correct decision. Google are going through something similar at the moment although I am unsure of whether they should be found guilty or not. The point is, it's good that they are asking the antitrust question the first place. You can find a lot of examples of the conflict between EU data law and industry competition standards and these few particular massive technology companies. The question people would ask is whether the EU's laws on these matters are needlessly restrictive to businesses that operate in this industry. Perhaps parts of it are but I wouldn't say so myself. If anything they need to be made stronger. There's far too much emphasis on the corporation over the citizen already and we need to start going in the other direction (highlighted by the large opposition to TTIP). The downside might be that the EU countries never have a tech sector as great as the US but man, in the end it's worth it to protect the people from anti-consumer behaviour.
  - dylanjermiah 11y ago
    >The downside might be that the EU countries never have a tech sector as great as the US but man, in the end it's worth it to protect the people from anti-consumer behaviour. Thanks, and I can see your point. Except for this last part, I'm having a hard time understanding the rationale. Do you mind talking more about how more government intervention and regulation could benefit consumers, compared to the current situation. How will 'the people' be protected? How will the government make better decisions than they can make for themselves? I don't understand how a smaller technology sector correlates to less 'anti-consumer' behaviour by companies?