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European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance

europa.eu

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Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance

#5

Post by skrebbel »

clarry wrote: post #3

Promoting your own product above competitors' is ok unless you're big. Ok, I get it. But I don't agree with it.

Actually, I'm not sure you get it. It's not about being big, it's about using a monopoly position in one field to gain entry to another.

If you're big but not a monopolist, and you do the exact same thing, then way less of a problem. Hence Apple could bundle Safari with iOS but Microsoft couldn't bundle IE with Windows XP in the exact same way.

Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance

#6

Post by nickserv »

mrleiter wrote: post #4

If they do not comply within 90 days, they can be fined with 5% of the daily average revenue of Alphabet, Inc. For FY16, they had a revenue of approx. $90.27b, that leaves a fine of approx. $12.3m. *edit: forgot to divide by 365 (days). I apologise.

Meaning that the fine is about half of what they make in a day. A slap on the wrist.

Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance

#7

Post by glenndebacker »

clarry wrote: post #3

Promoting your own product above competitors' is ok unless you're big. Ok, I get it. But I don't agree with it.

The problem is not being big but the effect you have on the market. And that effect is naturally a lot bigger if you are a defacto monopoly ergo why there are a different set of rules. It can't be all party if you are at that position.

If you would not have that kind of control (and fines when they break those rules) it would be virtually impossible to beat these kind of entities or they can use their weight to strong-arm them-self in a lot of markets. See what happened in the past with Microsoft.

Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance

#9

Post by baq »

clarry wrote: post #3

Promoting your own product above competitors' is ok unless you're big. Ok, I get it. But I don't agree with it.

runaway free market ends with standard oil. regulators need to keep it within bounds where competition is possible. it's doubly important in the internet where geography doesn't matter most of the time and winner takes all pretty much globally, because there's no other option really.
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