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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

#161

Post by saltysalt »

shevy-java wrote: post #133
saltysalt wrote: post #122

Ultimately AI will kill Google's search monopoly, not fines.

That's an interesting comment. I noticed already years before AI emerged that Google ruined its search engine. I am not sure AI per se kills search engines, but interestingly the other search engines also suck immensely. Even from the User Interface, which is strange to me. Qwant just copy/pasted Google's horrible UI. DuckDuckGo is praised for reasons I don't understand - it also produces really low quality results.…

Yes you are correct, most are horrible. I built my own as a hobby because I wanted to go back to the "ten blue links" model of the early Internet, but freely admit that model is now dead with the majority of end-users asking their AI assistants instead. Gemini is vital to Google as a result.

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

#163

Post by ben_w »

suslik wrote: post #132
ben_w wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when I lived in Cambridge, someone worked out this was actually true for one of the car parks. (Not those exact numbers, but the same point).

I lived in a city where police can fine you for biking in the night without the lights on, but police catches people so rarely that, per ride, the mathematical expectation of a fine was lower than the cost of batteries.

Today? Wow. You must have very weirdly expensive batteries and/or electricity. Around here, a complete replacement of non-rechargeable bike light batteries would cost €1.25, and they'd still last more than one ride each. Rechargeable batteries may cost more, but last thousands.

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

#164

Post by izacus »

ExoticPearTree wrote: post #142
izacus wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please refrain from these kind of lazy comments, especially when they're trivially proven wrong.

How are they false? Will the EC fund the road in front of my house from the money it gets from Google? Doubt it. And the AC is real, during the heatwave a few weeks back, the EC turned it off for the lower floors and kept it on the higher floor where the commissioners work. It was an article linked here on HN too.

Yes, I'm not going to spend energy debunking your lying, but it's really trivial ti find out which budget does this money go to and how much EU funds.

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

#165

Post by Muromec »

suslik wrote: post #134
account42 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if a train ticket costs 9 Euros and a fine is 60 Euros but you are almost never checked it quickly becomes cheaper to eat the fines.

Until the tragedy of the commons kicks in.

When the fare dodging rate increases they send out more fare controllers too.

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

#166

Post by trusche »

amazingamazing wrote: post #32

[flagged]

Is that supposed to be a snark? Do better. I prefer that we didn't miss the boat on caring for each other, not shooting each other constantly, and generally not feeling we're better than anybody else, and the need to point it out on HN.

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

#168

Post by suslik »

ben_w wrote: post #163
suslik wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in a city where police can fine you for biking in the night without the lights on, but police catches people so rarely that, per ride, the mathematical expectation of a fine was lower than the cost of batteries.

Today? Wow. You must have very weirdly expensive batteries and/or electricity. Around here, a complete replacement of non-rechargeable bike light batteries would cost €1.25, and they'd still last more than one ride each. Rechargeable batteries may cost more, but last thousands.

That was quite a while ago. I can't recall exactly anymore, but the yearly battery cost was probably indeed quite low, ~20 euro maybe? They just didn't fine people often enough.

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

#169

Post by Muromec »

inigyou wrote: post #148
lnsru wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically you need 3 persons writing compliance documentation and taking care of cybersecurity. Basically another 200000€ personal cost year in low cost area. 250000€ or more in bigger cities. You have a microprocessor in your product and it’s done deal. No big deal for corporations though. Buddy’s workplace hired new compliance department for this topic with 30 persons. That’s competition european way.

You know that when a regulation mandates a role like this, it isn't the person's entire job, right? When GDPR says you need a data protection officer, it doesn't mean you need to hire someone to be your data protection officer. In a very small startup, it could mean the CEO is also the data protection officer.

You don't need a whole full timer for that either. When we had to deal with the usual iso stuff it was one guy hired through the agency working on Thursdays

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

#170

Post by hunglee2 »

flohofwoe wrote: post #115
hunglee2 wrote: post #2

EU regulatory apparatus is maybe only part of the EU which is operates without obsequiousness to the US; on the one hand, this is necessary assertion of sovereignty, on the other you fear for the wider collateral damage which will inevitably ensue. Trump gonna respond to this with an escalation for sure

> Trump gonna respond to this with an escalation for sure This is basically the equivalent of the weekly nuclear annihilation threat from the Moscow direction ;) Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%27s_final_warning

to be fair to Trump, he does respond to corporate lobby - Pichai just got to make a phone call and an EO will be rolling out in short order. This is not because Gogole controls Trump, it is simply that Trump is a nationalist and will defend US companies, he just needs to be reminded to do so
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