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Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

ca.finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#121

Post by blitzar »

lores wrote: post #55
llm_nerd wrote: post #20

> The EU fines could stoke tensions with U.S President Donald Trump who has threatened to levy tariffs against countries that penalise U.S. companies. Mark Zuckerberg, in his appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast, specifically noted this as his goal for falling in behind Trump. That Trump would be the big-stick man that would protect Meta and other cos from foreign interference. Where "interference" is anything restricti…

Someone here hazarded the hypothesis that Trump's tariffs are a stick aimed not towards other countries, but towards American corporations, who have to pledge fealty (and resources) to Trump in exchange for relief. I think it makes a lot of sense, if any of this is rational, which I'm not entirely sold on.

You gotta kick back to the big guy.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#122

Post by pjc50 »

stavros wrote: post #69
xvector wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't you allowed to track people across your own services if users consent? If they don't consent, they are free to simply not use your services. Problem solved. There is no actual need for this law. No rights are being infringed on. Just don't use the website.

Because that's how we like it, and that's the end of it. The people of the EU have said that these are the rules for doing business there, and saying "I should be able to murder people in my own house, if you don't want to be murdered, just don't come here, there's no need for anti-murdering laws" is rather irrelevant.

> saying "I should be able to murder people in my own house, if you don't want to be murdered, just don't come here, there's no need for anti-murdering laws"

The Americans call this "stand your ground".

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#123

Post by dabeeeenster »

iagooar wrote: post #84

The EU is using populist claims to introduce laws with ideological bias (big corp bad, America bad, America corp super bad). Everyone knows the digital act was never meant to be a fair set of rules, it was introduced to punish US companies at will. At the same time, most governments, public offices, agencies and businesses in Europe would not be able to operate normally without access to American software. The proble…

"Over regulate and tax"? What? Have you done any reading on how almost all US tech companies go to extreme lengths to avoid paying tax?

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#124

Post by fidotron »

falcor84 wrote: post #108
fidotron wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like arguing McDonalds has a monopoly over food sold in McDonalds outlets, when you have a choice to not go into McDonalds.

This metaphor doesn't quite work because McDonalds aren't a marketplace. But the closest I can think of is if McDonalds sold the best hamburger boxes that people want to use at home, but then added a mechanism that only lets you put a burger in that box if whoever made that burger bribed MacDonalds, regardless of what's good for you as the burger consumer.

McDonalds are not responsible for what people do outside of McDonalds. If the entire potential customerbase decides to show up at McDonalds and exclusively eat there for five years bankrupting everyone else and McDonalds had behaved legally throughout then how are they the problem?

As I mentioned elsewhere, just look at the idiotic way Europe embraced WhatsApp. They genuinely believed it was free, and a huge proportion of users still don't understand it's attached to Meta and Facebook. They are so susceptible to product dumping by tech companies because they are astoundingly cheap and short sighted, and they will not pay for an alternative when the "free" version exists.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#125

Post by tomalbrc »

i_have_an_idea wrote: post #113
phtrivier wrote: post #98

> Apple faces a €500 million fine for breaching the regulation’s rules for app stores, while Meta drew a penalty of €200 million for its "pay or consent" advertising model, > The procedural fines fall short of the two giant penalties issued by the EU executive under its antitrust laws last year: €1.8 billion to Apple for abusing its dominant position while distributing music streaming apps, and €797 million to Meta f…

> somehow deducted from subsidies Do you think the EU subsidizes Meta/Apple.

[flagged]

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#126

Post by tpm »

mapcars wrote: post #117

> while Meta drew a penalty of €200 million for its "pay or consent" advertising model, which requires that European Union users pay to access ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram Wait, isn't pretty much all web content is like this nowadays? You have to buy youtube premium to avoid ads, how is it different?

> You have to buy youtube premium to avoid ads

Or you can block the ads in the browser for free. In this case, you have to consent being tracked (or pay) or otherwise the page will not display.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#127

Post by iagooar »

dabeeeenster wrote: post #123
iagooar wrote: post #84

The EU is using populist claims to introduce laws with ideological bias (big corp bad, America bad, America corp super bad). Everyone knows the digital act was never meant to be a fair set of rules, it was introduced to punish US companies at will. At the same time, most governments, public offices, agencies and businesses in Europe would not be able to operate normally without access to American software. The proble…

"Over regulate and tax"? What? Have you done any reading on how almost all US tech companies go to extreme lengths to avoid paying tax?

Most companies in the world do exactly that. Prove me wrong.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#128

Post by mdhb »

1oooqooq wrote: post #57
mentalgear wrote: post #12

A good start, but far from enough regarding the societal damage (anti-competitive, anti-user, psychological harm especially of minors, proliferation of radicalisation) they did.

*insert Mike Myers One Million Dollars meme they made more than the fine, so it's just reduced profit a little. mere higher cost of business and continue as usual.

The EU made a serious point that these are the first time they are issuing those fines as as such have capped them as a signal to show that they are serious but also that they aren’t taking the maximalist approach some in the US are accusing them of.

They can legally go for 10% of global revenue if I’m not mistaken as the top level of fines and both Apple and Meta would be wise to not find themselves as repeat offenders as a result.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#129

Post by sussmannbaka »

mapcars wrote: post #117

> while Meta drew a penalty of €200 million for its "pay or consent" advertising model, which requires that European Union users pay to access ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram Wait, isn't pretty much all web content is like this nowadays? You have to buy youtube premium to avoid ads, how is it different?

It’s not about being shown ads, it’s about collecting (and sharing to third parties) private information that goes beyond the technically required amount to use the service. GDPR says companies need to get my consent in order to do that, that I am free to not give this consent and that a service can’t not be provided to me just because I don’t give this consent. Facebook and a bunch of other companies said “aha! We’ll just create a paid alternative!” but this doesn’t comply with the law. It just took a while to take this through the courts but if you read the law it’s clear they just stalled for time on this one.

Re: Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law

#130

Post by robertlagrant »

dns_snek wrote: post #115
zpeti wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy an android or huawei phone. Just because the ecosystem you like to use doesn't have certain features doesn't make it a monopoly.

Setting aside that this is looking at the wrong side of the market like often happens in these discussions, what do you as a consumer do when Android or Huawei do something else that's a deal breaker for you?

Stop using them. What do you do if every car manufacturer does something that's a "deal breaker"? Don't make a deal with them by not buying a car.
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