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Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

reuters.com

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Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#41

Post by KptMarchewa »

brainwad wrote: post #11
raychis wrote: post #2

$1.5B is significant, but the bigger question is whether this actually changes how dominant platforms rank their own services. Is this real accountability for anti-competitive behaviour, or just another cost of doing business for Big Tech? My cynicism is tell me that unfortunately it is the latter.

IMO the fines do have an effect - Google now withholds a lot of launches from the EU, sometimes temporarily until they have time to have lawyers check them against DMA requirements, but mostly permanently. Ironically the part of Google most likely to persist in launching for the EU is Ads, since money is at stake. All the free, consumer-benefiting services are most likely to be curtailed in the face of aggressive reg…

If something like Facebook never launched here, we'd be so, so, so much better off as a society.

Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#43

Post by WarmWash »

vrganj wrote: post #26
brainwad wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the fines do have an effect - Google now withholds a lot of launches from the EU, sometimes temporarily until they have time to have lawyers check them against DMA requirements, but mostly permanently. Ironically the part of Google most likely to persist in launching for the EU is Ads, since money is at stake. All the free, consumer-benefiting services are most likely to be curtailed in the face of aggressive reg…

All of the free services are just part of the ad sales funnel. Never forget, the consumer never benefits, they are only the cattle to be fattened up. Them not launching in Europe gives the local market a chance to build up its own players. China was very successful in this thanks to the Great Firewall.

The consumer, who have never paid google a cent despite using their services daily for the last 20 years, likley spending a solid portion of their waking life on one of google's platforms, has never benefited?

And you think local players are going to look at users with this comically detached worldview and be like "Yeah, we want to build services for that group of people to use"?

Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#44

Post by YetAnotherNick »

usrnm wrote: post #38
YetAnotherNick wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checked what in EU? Do Microsoft not bundle their own browser in Windows in EU?

No

Source? The only news I can find about is EU users can uninstall it.

Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#45

Post by bevekspldnw »

vitally3643 wrote: post #36
carlosjobim wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if the Swedish courts stomp on Google in the name of national interest, maybe the US will stomp on Sweden in the name of national interest. Now consider where Klarna gets the most of their money from.

The US literally just lost the war in Iran. I don't think they're actually capable of "stomping" on anyone.

Don’t tease the paper tiger, it might be forced to fold again.

Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#46

Post by thisislife2 »

raychis wrote: post #2

$1.5B is significant, but the bigger question is whether this actually changes how dominant platforms rank their own services. Is this real accountability for anti-competitive behaviour, or just another cost of doing business for Big Tech? My cynicism is tell me that unfortunately it is the latter.

They do treat it as a "cost of doing business" as they do hedge between making a bigger profit through such violations vis the possible fine. But enforced fines like these serve as a warning that the government / regulator / judiciary are serious about enforcing laws and upholding rights. That precedent does discourages such actions because they know future violations will invite similar actions (the punitive fines may be worse for repeat violations) thus making the risks higher. The counter to that is political lobbying, if it is cheaper than the fines, and is also treated as another "cost of doing business".

(Even India has fined them 100s of millions of dollars - https://ssrana.in/articles/google-fined-anti-competitive-pra... ).

Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#47

Post by Freak_NL »

LtWorf wrote: post #29
buggeryorkshire wrote: post #10

Didn't Google have a previous lawsuit against foundem? Not a fan of Google but foundem were fucking awful.

Not like klarna are nice

Quite. At least Google delivers some value to society, despite being mostly evil. Klarna is exclusively parasitic, getting people needlessly into debt and pushing a buy now pay later mentality for luxury products.

Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#48

Post by pohuing »

usrnm wrote: post #38
YetAnotherNick wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checked what in EU? Do Microsoft not bundle their own browser in Windows in EU?

No

They do. Good luck getting Firefox otherwise, so I don't mind it.

Similarly, they bundle Bing as the Web search in the start menu.

Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#49

Post by bevekspldnw »

JAlexoid wrote: post #32
al_borland wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but if I’m understanding this (maybe I’m not), a company could make a service competitive to an Alphabet product, then sue them for not using it? For instance, if a company started up an ad business, are they going to sue and win, because Google uses their own ad service in Search instead of this new competitor? That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

You're not understanding this. A company can create a new search engine and Google Search isn't obligated to even mention it. The issue is when achieving market dominance and new service is integrated into the dominant product. You clearly haven't been around long enough to have caught a lot of discussions on this topic over a decade ago.

No, you are the one not understanding this.

Google literally is a convicted monopolist in the Search antitrust case. The judge just didn’t impose any remedy or penalty.

Many of the arguments around that case had to do with bundling Search, nothing to do with other products. It was Search.

This is why the Firefox CEO gave Google the testimony they paid for, and retired shortly thereafter. It was quid pro quo.

Firefox was paid for years to include Search so one day they’d show up to court and say “we include Google because they are the best, not because they pay us”. The judge didn’t actually buy it, but that was the deal - we pay you millions, one day you show up and read a script.

The confusing part to the lay person is Google got away with it despite the prosecutions case holding.

Imagine if a person robbed a bank and was convicted. The judge then said, ok you robbed the bank, the prosecution proved it, I rule in their favor.

However, when it comes to the punishment, I’m just going to let it slide, you can go home now.

Also, keep the money you stole, and if you happen to walk by another bank…say Associated Investments (AI), just go ahead and rob that one!

Re: Swedish court says Google is to pay $1.5B to Klarna in antitrust damages

#50

Post by gowld »

WarmWash wrote: post #43
vrganj wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of the free services are just part of the ad sales funnel. Never forget, the consumer never benefits, they are only the cattle to be fattened up. Them not launching in Europe gives the local market a chance to build up its own players. China was very successful in this thanks to the Great Firewall.

The consumer, who have never paid google a cent despite using their services daily for the last 20 years, likley spending a solid portion of their waking life on one of google's platforms, has never benefited? And you think local players are going to look at users with this comically detached worldview and be like "Yeah, we want to build services for that group of people to use"?

Google doesn't make money from you "paying a cent". They make money from you paying advertisers who pay Google. So the relevant metric is how much you spent on Google advertisers.
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