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EU fines Google €890M for competition breaches over search and apps

theguardian.com

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Re: EU fines Google €890M for competition breaches over search and apps

#71

Post by maccard »

Teever wrote: post #69
riffraff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this comment always comes up and it's _wrong_. The goal of the regulation is to get the operators to comply, which they usually do after fines (EDIT: and litigations and whining, of course), because the costs of infractions are increased if they don't comply.

If the cost of penalties doesn't exceed the cost of the offence then it's a winning move to offend. The correct solution to this is to have fines scaled to the value of a company and an exponential doubling of fines for every re-offence that falls under the same category of crime with a cooling off period after a few years.

Because the goal isn’t to punish, it’s to get them to do what the law wants them to do. The fine is supposed to be a slap on the wrist - the actual desired behaviour is compliance

Re: EU fines Google €890M for competition breaches over search and apps

#72

Post by actionfromafar »

sunaookami wrote: post #56
amazingamazing wrote: post #32

[flagged]

On a huge decline and the people are dissatisfied which leads to populist parties becoming more popular and the current governments trying to hold their power by passing draconian laws.

Like the US.

Re: EU fines Google €890M for competition breaches over search and apps

#73

Post by edb_123 »

logicchains wrote: post #62
GJim wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It kills those hardware startups that attempt to make money by selling us insecure crap? See also, the GDPR killing startups that attempt to invade our privacy and exploit personal data without permission.

And then there are no European hardware startups and your own options for hardware are Chinese and American, both with backdoors.

From what I gather, the cyber resilience act applies to all products placed on the EU market, regardless of whether the manufacturer is based inside or outside of the EU. So European hardware vendors will be competing on the same terms as American and Chinese ones when it comes to the CRA.

Re: EU fines Google €890M for competition breaches over search and apps

#75

Post by oblio »

hirako2000 wrote: post #16
riffraff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this comment always comes up and it's _wrong_. The goal of the regulation is to get the operators to comply, which they usually do after fines (EDIT: and litigations and whining, of course), because the costs of infractions are increased if they don't comply.

The cost increases, but given the revenue Google generates how is that not just a tax? I've never received a dollar from the EU as a victim. If the fines are moderate and big co keeps paying that's steady revenue for the EU institutions.

> I've never received a dollar from the EU as a victim.

There's this standard assumption that HN users are well educated.

Budgets don't work like that. It's not like the US federal government collects taxes and then deposits bags of gold coins on people's doorsteps.

Taxes, fines, etc are all collected and then they mostly go to a general, undifferentiated budget which is then divided by the various ministries (departments, whatever).

So yes, if you're a EU citizen you did get the money back. As roads, hospitals, research funding, etc.

Re: EU fines Google €890M for competition breaches over search and apps

#76

Post by sajithdilshan »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #36
hirako2000 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost increases, but given the revenue Google generates how is that not just a tax? I've never received a dollar from the EU as a victim. If the fines are moderate and big co keeps paying that's steady revenue for the EU institutions.

It‘s nice to have such revenue to fund EU programs on digital sovereignty. European institutions give plenty of money to startups. You need an entry to the program, but when you are in, it can account for 50-70% or more in your early stage funding. And that‘s nice, because you keep more equity.

I don't think that's a sustainable model. Also most of those fines goes into filling the gaps in budgets related to recurring costs of maintaining the bureaucratic behemoth rather than funding research or innovation.
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