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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

#381

Post by mrtksn »

superzamp wrote: post #367
mrtksn wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

I would imagine that getting the user out of the in-app purchase payment screen and attempt to redirect them at the website for payment, have them figure out how to enter credit card details etc would result in a drastically decreased conversion rate though.

Imagine a major streaming service: Subscription through Apple 30USD/Month or 25USD/Month if you do it through this one click fintech app.

The fintech app can even pay the streaming service for every customer they bring.

So for the users who already have the fintech app its a no-brainer, click once and get a free coffee each month. For those who don't have the app already it can push them to create an account as they see it on every app as a cheaper alternative. In Europe at least, even traditional banks are able to create a new customer account through a few steps in the in the app. It's usually just about entering your name, taking a photo of your ID and then scanning your face by looking left and right on the camera. You can have a grace period to add the funds for the subscription.

Banks already pay a lot of money for new customers, its pretty common in some places to offer interest-free loans or give cashbacks when you create a bank account through the app. They can partner with those services to offer months of free use or upgrades and then suddenly the value for the trouble of a few click and a scan goes up substantially.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#382

Post by madeofpalk »

sapphicsnail wrote: post #372
fc417fc802 wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed with your first point. Regarding TikTok though the argument was never (AFAIK) that they were actively breaking the law but rather that their structure and ownership posed a threat to US interests. That's pretty reasonable and largely mirrors China's stance against the US. If anything the surprising thing is how lenient western governments tend to be towards foreign corporations. They seem to prioritize free tr…

I find this so confusing. Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk are foreigners who are both demonstrably influencing American politics through media they control. What makes Tiktok different?

Rupert Murdoch has exclusively been a US citizen for 40 years.

But really, what makes Tiktok different is China.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#383

Post by bojan »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #325
WhyNotHugo wrote: post #238

US officials and businessmen keep on repeating the same thing: > The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards. But this is wildly untrue. The EU isn't hand-picking individual organisations and fining them because they're American, they're fining them because they're in breach of existing legislation.…

I think you make many good points. Slight tangent: Why isn't EU more concerned about TikTok? While it is very difficult to prove, various studies have demonstrated that TikTok pushes more content favoring the Chinese Government (CCP).

In my anecdotal experience of one, American platforms are way faster in pushing far-right content on me even though it has to be clear to the algorithm that I don't want such content.

TikTok never does that.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#384

Post by baby »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #329
WhyNotHugo wrote: post #238

US officials and businessmen keep on repeating the same thing: > The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards. But this is wildly untrue. The EU isn't hand-picking individual organisations and fining them because they're American, they're fining them because they're in breach of existing legislation.…

Agreed with your first point. Regarding TikTok though the argument was never (AFAIK) that they were actively breaking the law but rather that their structure and ownership posed a threat to US interests. That's pretty reasonable and largely mirrors China's stance against the US. If anything the surprising thing is how lenient western governments tend to be towards foreign corporations. They seem to prioritize free tr…

The US is lying about tiktok, the only reason is to mirror China's strategy towards American app. After watching the tit-for-tat video of Veritasum[1] I agree with America's strategy of banning Chinese apps until China allows American apps. That being said, I wish the US was more transparent about why they're doing this instead of lying.

I'm guessing the reason why they're lying is that they don't want to scare ALL Chinese companies.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mScpHTIi-kM

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#385

Post by Aloisius »

Zopieux wrote: post #374
dwaite wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Booking Holdings Inc was also American. There are zero European companies, including Spotify - the #1 music streaming marketplace in the world.

What exactly does Spotify gatekeep though?

They're a gatekeeper in the same way YouTube or TikTok is.

They control access of businesses, in this case music labels, to the final customer.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#386

Post by jerf »

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #238

US officials and businessmen keep on repeating the same thing: > The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards. But this is wildly untrue. The EU isn't hand-picking individual organisations and fining them because they're American, they're fining them because they're in breach of existing legislation.…

There is no irony. The EU is targeting US companies. The US is targeting Chinese companies. The US is or soon will be targeting EU companies. China is targeting US companies. China will probably soon be targeting EU companies if they aren't already, which is probably already debatable. And this is not a complete list, it's not even a complete list of the highlights.

If they're doing it by legislation, well, the EU has been passing "legislation clearly designed for US companies to be in infringement of" for a while. Maybe you like that. Maybe it's a good thing; after all, the things they're passing laws about are basically just actions only US companies are capable of taking right now. Nevertheless it is clearly targeting. It's just targeting you like. The US has passed such legislation. China does it both with formal legislation and with de facto rules.

Free trade is a dead letter. Whether you like that or not is not very relevant to whether or not it is dead. It's dead. Maybe it'll swing back around in a few decades but right now even that is a distant prospect, we're not even done accelerating into the current merchantalist phase of the cycle, let alone decelerating, let alone heading back.

(Note "whataboutism" would be an inappropriate response to my point here; that's about "it's ok for us because they do it". My observation is not normative, merely descriptive... everyone is doing it, and they're doing it more rather than less right now.)

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#387

Post by barbazoo »

rsynnott wrote: post #154
llm_nerd wrote: post #20

> The EU fines could stoke tensions with U.S President Donald Trump who has threatened to levy tariffs against countries that penalise U.S. companies. Mark Zuckerberg, in his appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast, specifically noted this as his goal for falling in behind Trump. That Trump would be the big-stick man that would protect Meta and other cos from foreign interference. Where "interference" is anything restricti…

> Of course Meta could just withdrawn from the EU. I mean, probably not without being sued by their shareholders. As a public company, you cannot simply abandon 40bn revenue/year because you feel aggrieved. But yeah, the "you'd better be nice to us, EC, or Trump might be angry" tactic is kinda shot at this point.

> I mean, probably not without being sued by their shareholders. As a public company, you cannot simply abandon 40bn revenue/year because you feel aggrieved.

What are the laws that Meta would be violating?

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#388

Post by radlad »

Aloisius wrote: post #385
Zopieux wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly does Spotify gatekeep though?

They're a gatekeeper in the same way YouTube or TikTok is. They control access of businesses, in this case music labels, to the final customer.

That's not really true. You can easily switch to Deezer, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, YouTube Music, etc. You'll have access to just about the exact same library of music.

You can't just ignore YouTube, TikTok, Facebook Marketplace and still have access to the content they gatekeep.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#389

Post by radlad »

dwaite wrote: post #365
radlad wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the question whether they were set because they were US companies, or because they are dominant gatekeepers on the Internet? 5/7 designated gatekeepers are US companies: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/gatekeepers_en

I thought Booking Holdings Inc was also American. There are zero European companies, including Spotify - the #1 music streaming marketplace in the world.

My mistake. While Booking.com is HQ'd in Amsterdam, Booking Holdings is indeed a US company (also responsible for Priceline, Kayak, and OpenTable.)

> There are zero European companies, including Spotify - the #1 music streaming marketplace in the world.

This still doesn't answer the actual question of whether the gatekeepers were selected because they are US companies, or because they are are Internet gatekeepers. I don't find it surprising that the US's legal and economic culture resulted in more conglomerate gatekeepers than other nations.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#390

Post by [deleted] »

reissbaker wrote: post #360
pjc50 wrote: post #2

Ah, they said the T-word, presumably to invoke some political fire support from across the Atlantic. I wonder how that will go. Of course, this is not a tariff, for two reasons: firstly, it does not involve money (the UK's digital services tax does, but that's not this), and secondly, the same rules would apply to EU native competitors .. if there were any. It's what's knows as a "non tariff trade barrier". Of course…

"the same rules would apply to EU maybe competitors... if there were any." That can actually be an example of a tariff, though. Basically every country specializes in something, and imports things they're not good at making. For example: cheese, or luxury watches, or GPUs. If you have a special law that charges companies money only for the categories you import and you carve out exceptions for "small" (aka domestic)…

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