Is there anyone who would seriously disagree?
EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
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Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#12Should the US break up LVMH given how dominant they are in luxury goods?
Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#13Should the US break up LVMH given how dominant they are in luxury goods?
Can you give a reasonable argument why they shouldn't? I'm not sure you're making the point you think you're making.
Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#14Before anyone makes the argument that the EU should have no jurisdiction over an American entity, please remember that Google sells its services in Europe. It's well within the jurisdiction of the EU to regulate how anyone does business here. Google Ireland alone had a 50B euro turnover. The breaking up of monopolies used to be in the toolbox of American antitrust policies, back when America enforced antitrust legisl…
> The breaking up of monopolies used to be in the toolbox of American antitrust policies, back when America enforced antitrust legislation on its own companies.
The US Justice Department sued Google in 2020 and is asking for pretty much the same disinvestment for pretty much the same reasons. The EU is trailing the US by two years here.
I'm eagerly awaiting the trove of patriotic comments which will undoubtedly follow the posting of such an article and will most likely entirely miss the point as usual.
Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#15Is there anyone who would seriously disagree ?
Shareholders perhaps...
Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#16These rulings for a company of Google's stature/importance are always funny to me. How quickly would public opinion change if Google decided to just shut off their service in the EU for a day? Monopolistic breakups that serve the public's best interest are one thing. But how many people actually care that Google might represent a monopoly? Does it actually affect people negatively if the result is a positive online u…
Also imagine breaking one so called monopoly and giving the market away to Apple
This will no doubt impact things like android etc.
Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#17Is there anyone who would seriously disagree ?
I disagree. I think this sets a bad precedence. Who's next? Apple? Microsoft?
There needs to be some formal process in which countries can vote/object to these things.
Breaking up Google has ramifications for the entire world. Europe should not abuse this sort of power.
I don't see Europe breaking up Luxottica, LVHM, De Beers Group.
Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#18These rulings for a company of Google's stature/importance are always funny to me. How quickly would public opinion change if Google decided to just shut off their service in the EU for a day? Monopolistic breakups that serve the public's best interest are one thing. But how many people actually care that Google might represent a monopoly? Does it actually affect people negatively if the result is a positive online u…
> How quickly would public opinion change if Google decided to just shut off their service in the EU for a day?
Always this same old tune. Do you realize how outlandish and naive it is to even suggest that? Google is fighting tooth and nail to make sure that EU laws are laxist. You know why? Because they know that they will have to comply, in the end. The market is just too big to let go of.
And I don't think you're making the point you think you're making. If a single company can suspend its services and upheave the whole population's life, then it's a ripe for getting antitrust rulings.
Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#19Assiming this happened, and it worked as expected, the result would be:
* more ads, as competition drives down prices
* worse ads as cheaper adds don't need to be as relevant but do need to be more eye catching / shocking to compete for attention.
* less money to pay for the services ad revenue cover, so maybe you have to pay for gmail or get more spam etc
People seem to miss that "Competition" is not an ends in itself. Neither is lower prices. Human well-being should be. Under that model, google should be a regulated monopoly with enforced higher ad prices. That would mean better services, and fewer, better ads.
The only counter argument to this is that higher ad costs would mean (slightly) higher product costs. But we already live in that world...
Re: EU suggests breaking up Google's ad business in preliminary antitrust ruling
#20it would be better if they broke the ad exchange from the rest. a google without the ad revenue doesnt make sense