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Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

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Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#61

Post by rpdillon »

embedding-shape wrote: post #57
threemux wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh please. "The law" is a Kafkaesque patchwork that delegates authority to local officials and has enough complexity and wiggle room to make anything possible. We're not talking about a speed limit sign here. Show me the [company], I'll show you the crime. I've been assured by people in this thread and others that, for example, if you "don't spy on users", you don't need cookie banners, and yet official EU sites have…

> Show me the [company], I'll show you the crime. Yeah, maybe that floats the people's boat wherever you live, but in other countries where people's health and well-being go above corporate interests, it is not common for companies to break the law. > for example, if you "don't spy on users", you don't need cookie banners, and yet official EU sites have them. Which is true, and you can understand that yourself by not…

> I think even an American would be able to get through it if you apply yourself.

This doesn't belong on HN.

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#62

Post by joe_mamba »

esperent wrote: post #23
runako wrote: post #11

This looks like it's targeted at the relationship between Apple and Italian developers. I guess this means Apple could also comply by kicking Italian developers out of the iOS developer program?

Unlikely because services in the EU have to be offered without barriers to everyone across all member states.

Which EU law say that exact thing?

Because now I live in an EU country that had (and has) foreign products and services, typically of US origin, that are not officially available in my home EU country, like for example Xbox GamePass for console. Was same with Nextflix till a few years ago. Same with AMEX cards.

So NO, you can definitely provide your services only to specific EU member states if that's what you wish, they can't force you to sell in all countries.

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#63

Post by amarcheschi »

Someone1234 wrote: post #52
earthnail wrote: post #37

Surprised by the negative comments here. Usually HN univocally complains about Apple‘s dominant App Store. Now a government fines them for it and some people are upset?

It is a nationalistic thing. When foreign governments fine "American" companies, they get all up in arms, while constantly asking the US Government to provide better consumer protections and promote competition. This position commonly ignores that these fines are against these companies position within the market for which they're fined. Meaning that the EU will look at the EU profits and fine relative to those, so t…

This whole procedure started after Meta (that meta) reported apple to the authority, it's not even an investigation that was started by the authority of its own volition

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#64

Post by Lapel2742 »

lioeters wrote: post #2

OK now slap the wrists of Alphabet and Meta.

> OK now slap the wrists of Alphabet and Meta.

Google is probably next (Antitrust case(s)). AFAIK the EU is currently probing a case.

And before the Nationalists get mad again: If I sell in the US I'm naturally obliged to follow US rules and regulations. I wouldn't even think twice about this. The same is true in other markets. So for the Single Market: If you play on European turf, you play by European rules.

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#65

Post by [deleted] »

znpy wrote: post #12
nicole_express wrote: post #4

I'm so glad they're protecting us from Apple (checking document) making it too hard to collect personal data for advertising. Thanks, Italy

It really depends if apple is making it hard to collect data that apple itself can collect with blanket permissions from users. In that case yes, apple is abusing its dominant position and is competing unfairly with other companies. And they must be fined for that. Apple does advertising too: https://ads.apple.com

[deleted]

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#66

Post by embedding-shape »

rpdillon wrote: post #61
embedding-shape wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Show me the [company], I'll show you the crime. Yeah, maybe that floats the people's boat wherever you live, but in other countries where people's health and well-being go above corporate interests, it is not common for companies to break the law. > for example, if you "don't spy on users", you don't need cookie banners, and yet official EU sites have them. Which is true, and you can understand that yourself by not…

> I think even an American would be able to get through it if you apply yourself. This doesn't belong on HN.

True, and I see now it could be read in a way I didn't intended it to, fixed it by making it clearer what I meant. Thanks :)

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#67

Post by dns_snek »

earthnail wrote: post #37

Surprised by the negative comments here. Usually HN univocally complains about Apple‘s dominant App Store. Now a government fines them for it and some people are upset?

You shouldn't be surprised. Almost every single story involving the EU and Apple that I've seen over the past few years was full of low effort responses and generic rants about the EU by people who clearly haven't read past the title, especially when it comes to fines.

Take your pick: "EU is fining us to finance itself", "EU can't innovate", "I can't believe that EU is fining Apple for [gross misunderstanding of the situation]"

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#68

Post by concinds »

piva00 wrote: post #51
concinds wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "stricter" privacy rules of "Accept all" banners that send your data to 1000+ companies? Or "Accept all", but to Refuse you must tap a small grey link and manually uncheck dozens of boxes? Or worse, banners that force you to choose between accepting all tracking or paying a monthly subscription, blatantly illegal in the EU but ubiquitous in Italy even among large companies and news sites? Meanwhile ATT blocks acc…

> The "stricter" privacy rules of "Accept all" banners that send your data to 1000+ companies? Or "Accept all", but to Refuse you must tap a small grey link and manually uncheck dozens of boxes? Or worse, banners that force you to choose between accepting all tracking or paying a monthly subscription, blatantly illegal in the EU but ubiquitous in Italy even among large companies and news sites? I don't know, I just s…

I'm not "incensed" by the law at all, only by the companies gleefully violating it.

But Apple doesn't track you in the way ATT prevents, see my other comment; the narrative that they do was pushed by the adtech industry who wants ATT gone, and the courts (French, Italian) just never bothered checking if that was true. Check the decision yourself, they take it for granted and never look into how it works.

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#69

Post by HotGarbage »

dinkblam wrote: post #33

no year goes by without Italy imposing random >100m€ fines for 2-3 american tech companies. whenever they need money, they just hit another one without care whether actual laws were violated. the amount they take has no correlation to what has been blamed, only to how much the companies can afford to pay without threatening to leave the country. the 'Guardia di Finanza' has a long standing tradition of trying to exto…

[flagged]

Re: Italian Competition Authority Fines Apple $115M for Abusing Dominant Position

#70

Post by prettygood »

threemux wrote: post #36
dinkblam wrote: post #33

no year goes by without Italy imposing random >100m€ fines for 2-3 american tech companies. whenever they need money, they just hit another one without care whether actual laws were violated. the amount they take has no correlation to what has been blamed, only to how much the companies can afford to pay without threatening to leave the country. the 'Guardia di Finanza' has a long standing tradition of trying to exto…

It's the EU way. The only area where they produce world-leading innovation is regulatory regimes, so gotta use it to hit up American tech companies like an ATM.

They can always chose not to sell their products and services in the EU if they don't want to comply with the laws here.
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