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Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

proton.me

11–20 of 163 posts

Re: Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

#11

Day 7 is 2% of the year. Is it not enough deterrent? If my portfolio is missing 2% growth per year I’d be pretty worrying

Thet is not the same. it would be eg if you target 10% growth, the fines would be 2% of that so 0.2%

Re: Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

#12

Day 7 is 2% of the year. Is it not enough deterrent? If my portfolio is missing 2% growth per year I’d be pretty worrying

Only if this growth hadn't accelerated because of the actions that caused the fine. If those actions caused you a 10% increase, then 2% is nothing.

Re: Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

#13
post #5
post #2

Either the fines need to be high enough until there is a material impact to shareholders, or natural persons who make decisions within the corporation needs to be held accountable (not just the legal person), OR, we need to fundamentally rethink what a corporation's charter must necessarily include (in addition to shareholder returns).

What is the pushback exactly against fining based on average yearly revenues ? The EU has been issuing fines to google as mentioned ($8 billion still owed) but I never understood why they can't simply charge a 20% of revenue within the EU. The fines are not to redeem some income for the EU, they're to deter bad actors. This is just not happening.

Because they do montages to make their local revenue unknowable. Through clever use of debt and licensing.

Re: Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

#14

Day 7 is 2% of the year. Is it not enough deterrent? If my portfolio is missing 2% growth per year I’d be pretty worrying

Evidently not. But I'm not sure if such fines are supposed to be a deterrent or supposed to be to pay to fix the damage done. Somehow I think they are even further from covering the latter.

Re: Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

#15

Day 7 is 2% of the year. Is it not enough deterrent? If my portfolio is missing 2% growth per year I’d be pretty worrying

Thet is not the same. it would be eg if you target 10% growth, the fines would be 2% of that so 0.2%

It is though, instead of getting $100 they are now only getting 98% because they miss 7 days of revenue.

And actually it is going to be much worse because we haven’t deducted operating costs to find profit

Re: Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

#17
post #4

This article makes a good point comparing the relatively small magnitude of fines paid to revenue earned. It follows that perhaps fines are not deterring. Perhaps a stronger deterrent would be injunction-based: companies found to be in violation of regulations and laws might be enjoined completely from operating in a commercial space. "One strike and you're out."

Revenue and profit are not the same though.

Re: Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

#18
post #3

Instead of fines, it should be forced price reductions.

Wouldn't that hurt margins but also increase market power for these companies?

Also how would it work if the product is already "free" to the consumer, ie Facebook or Google?

Re: Big Tech has already made enough money in 2024 to pay all its 2023 fines

#20
post #6
post #2

Either the fines need to be high enough until there is a material impact to shareholders, or natural persons who make decisions within the corporation needs to be held accountable (not just the legal person), OR, we need to fundamentally rethink what a corporation's charter must necessarily include (in addition to shareholder returns).

Could you imagine adding additional fine to shareholders? Like a reverse dividend? I wonder what disasters or blesses this will cause

That actually sounds like a remarkably elegant way to do it. We'll never know what the second order consequences could be until we try it. But I doubt they'll be as bad as what we're experiencing now.
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