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Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

ca.finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#221

Post by mrtksn »

madeofpalk wrote: post #11

> Under the DMA, app developers distributing their apps via Apple's App Store should be able to inform customers, free of charge, of alternative offers outside the App Store, steer them to those offers and allow them to make purchases. To me, this is the most easily agreeable part of what the EU has been after. It is unfair that Apple restricts Netflix from telling it's users that they can sign up and pay for Netlifx…

>the most easily agreeable part of what the EU has been after

It's also probably the most dangerous for Apple. It creates a cash incentive to push people outside of Apple's walled garden and show them what's outside.

I really really hope Apple gets its act together, they are the greatest "the user experience comes first" company and they actually have great hard tech but they show signs of rent seeking behavior which can destroy them.

If Apple just play nice with EU, open up and focus on bringing the greatest experience possible they will keep winning. If not, they will have blunders and they will lose Europe since people are willing to look for alternatives as USA gets increasingly unpopular among the Europeans due to politics.

The Apple's AI blunder is mostly a blunder only because they insist to do it all by themselves so to have higher margins on the services revenues. IMHO those blunders will be more damaging as the Americans no longer have the higher moral grounds than Koreans or Chinese.

I hope Apple is treading carefully.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#222

Post by rini17 »

carlosjobim wrote: post #172
rini17 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem was that Silicon Valley was flooded with capital and bought out all competitors. Or undercut with free. Or all kinds of other Microsoftlike practices. So nobody was left in the EU to advocate for better rules.

If that is true, how come new competitors spring up all the time in Silicon Valley and other places in the US while the European sector lies dormant?

Consider what happened to Nokia. The first business blunder caused it to be sold to US and gutted. Now if someone else wants to make smartphones in EU, has to start from scratch. But if that happens to US company, everything(at least the IP) stays in the US.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#223

Post by ben_w »

solenoid0937 wrote: post #195
ben_w wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience using Facebook is that every third post is an advertisement, often for something I can't even buy (common one: a tax adviser specialising in US citizens living in the UK, when I'm British and live in Germany), or are not gender appropriate (they've shown me ads both for boob surgery and for dick pills). Another third are "recommendations" for groups that are often not merely of zero interest, but geogra…

> We managed OK before the internet enabled targeted ads. Back then, local newspapers were a thing (I still get them around here), and you could put an ad for your barber shop or dance hall in that To be fair, we are in a wholly different world today. The small business landscape has changed dramatically - most of them are online. I get instagram ads for my really niche hobbies, and I don't mind. Example: Let's say y…

That kind of example matches what I was saying about forums.

Targeting ads to a forum is (with consent) fine, in the way that targeting a person isn't.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#224

Post by andsoitis »

phatfish wrote: post #89
robin_reala wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a couple of companies in the list[1] (of seven) that aren’t US-based. ByteDance are Chinese and Booking are EU (NL). [1] https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/gatekeepers_en

Booking Holdings which Wikipedia has as the parent of booking.com seems to be US owned.

Yes. Booking Holdings Inc. is incorporated in Delaware, listed on the Nasdaq with principal executive offices in Connecticut. See SEC filing: https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001075531/87dc4e5...

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#225

Post by andsoitis »

sensanaty wrote: post #200
xvector wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify conveniently falls outside of the scope of this law when any artist would tell you it should absolutely be covered. The DMA is gerrymandered to exclude domestic businesses. Whenever the EU faces budget shortfalls, they know they can just make up some bullshit law and fine US tech. > EU are basically enforcing market capitalism by disallowing monopolistic practices. Users are free to just not buy iOS devices.…

> The DMA is gerrymandered to exclude domestic businesses. Except Booking (~EU, based in NL~* ) falls under the DMA, and ByteDance (China? I think) does as well. All the same restrictions fall on them too. > Users are free to just not use Meta services. True in theory, not so much in practice. I work for a company that deals directly with WhatsApp in NL, and I guarantee you for businesses it's a death knell to not ha…

> Booking (EU, based in NL)

Booking Holdings Inc. is incorporated in Delaware, listed on the Nasdaq with principal executive offices in Connecticut. See SEC filing: https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001075531/87dc4e5...

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#226

Post by charlie-83 »

thrance wrote: post #202
irusensei wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I wouldn’t install software unless it were from a really trusted person doing something extremely unique and useful that doesn’t have an alternative on the Apple Store (think UTM with JIT for iPad). Please don’t take that as a negative comment but I suspect most people source their software from conveniently centralized repos whether it be App Store, Steam or even the main package manager on a Linux distri…

You mentioned linux package managers, these existing are proof enough that a 30% cut isn't required for ensuring the safety of what you install. In fact, I'd wager there is that much more dangerous garbage in the app store than in pacman's database.

As much as I think Apple's cut is unreasonable, I think all this shows is that people are making a lot more dangerous software for apple's larger less tech savvy userbase than for arch's.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#227

Post by llm_nerd »

solenoid0937 wrote: post #211
llm_nerd wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You are likely entirely informed by ragebait news articles Sure . Do you think I haven't experienced every aspect of Meta properties? Instagram reels, for instance, is a racist hellhole full of the most vile content and snuff videos. It seems to have zero moderation, profiting off of the worst of humanity[1]. Facebook actively runs obvious scam ads for scam businesses and does absolutely nothing if you report it. Me…

[flagged]

>This really isn't civil

It's a statement of fact. Meta profits off the worst of society. It is a heinous company.

If you find my comment so reprehensible, feel free to downvote, flag, etc. The crocodile-tear moralization comes across as concern trolling, and it's just a waste of bits.

>What is your end goal here?

You strangely keep editing this. I stated my thoughts. People are free to disagree. If it's so distressing to you I suggest you look inwards as to why that is.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#228

Post by fidotron »

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #188
fidotron wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU would have a lot more sympathy for this if there were any non trivial digital markets that originated in the EU, with the closest being Spotify, which they somehow claim is not a gatekeeper in the music industry. They aren't being a decent regulatory body on this one, given they have not reflected on why they are in this position, nor are they being fair with applying their rules. (The same comment can be made…

> The EU would have a lot more sympathy for this if there were any non trivial digital markets that originated in the EU Why should that be a prerequisite? The EU is sovereign. They are free to do whatever they want with their law. Let's not forget we are talking about the second consumer market in the world. There will be a lot more space for homegrown solutions or companies ready to comply if the foreign companies…

> There will be a lot more space for homegrown solutions or companies ready to comply if the foreign companies currently profiting decide to leave.

The core of what I'm trying to communicate is this is backwards.

If you took the Europeans out of Apple and Google they'd never have been able to build the iPhone or Android, or their associated stores. (And you could say this about other regions where the staff came from too). Why did those Europeans that helped the US leave the EU to do so? Because the companies in the US rewarded them as they recognized the explosive potential as the market developed.

The underlying problem is EU regulation is shortsighted, and always fighting the previous battle when it's been lost. They had every opportunity to lead this from the start. I namedropped GetJar earlier, but there was Jamster/Jamba and various services which the phone companies would subcontract to to run their own store fronts. I know of several aborted Android app stores and subscription services from the 2010 era, including those from Switzerland, Belgium and a certain large French company, and there are almost certainly more.

The time to address this was 15 years ago. Now their only viable path forward is to effectively fork Android and encourage adoption of their fork, much as the Chinese have. Their problem is they have to leave things like WhatsApp available, or their citizens will go nuts, and they will resist rewarding anyone involved with the technical side of the work, so it won't happen. They just want to punish the americans for having had the foresight that led to their success.

As an example, just look at how the europeans have failed to come up with something equivalent to WhatsApp, Signal or even Telegram. The closest is matrix and element, but again without the associated rewards for working on them they just aren't going to get up to the standards people expect, and so they languish with absolute idealists and those forced to use them.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#229

Post by jader201 »

madeofpalk wrote: post #11

> Under the DMA, app developers distributing their apps via Apple's App Store should be able to inform customers, free of charge, of alternative offers outside the App Store, steer them to those offers and allow them to make purchases. To me, this is the most easily agreeable part of what the EU has been after. It is unfair that Apple restricts Netflix from telling it's users that they can sign up and pay for Netlifx…

> It's telling that Gruber is pretty staunchly against EU/DMA interferance in Apple, and broadly thinks they're wrong. But this is the one thing he agree on

I’ve stopped seeing Gruber as any sort of authority on Apple for a while now. He’s just a single guy with an opinion like everyone else, and it’s, more times than not, clearly biased in favor of Apple.

Some of his analysis of objective data is informative, but when he gets into subjective material, I tune out. I don’t really care any more about what he says than most others sharing their opinion on the internet — it’s just one more data point to consider collectively alongside everyone else’s.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#230

Post by [deleted] »

llm_nerd wrote: post #48
xvector wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Canadian small businesses rely on Meta to get customers. If you think these companies don't add value, you are totally oblivious to the millions of small businesses that rely on these platforms to reach customers and niche audiences around the world.

[flagged]

[deleted]
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