Does it hurt them at all?
European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
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Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#22Capitalism is like a competition that when you win you don't ever get to play again.
Unrestricted capitalism will just converge to one single corporation.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#23I tend to agree with the underlying judgment, yet the record-breaking fine seems disproportionate to the debatable degree of wrongdoing, compared to the Intel case, where the (obviously reprehensible) extortion of distributors etc. only led to a fine of about €1.06B.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#24Promoting your own product above competitors' is ok unless you're big. Ok, I get it. But I don't agree with it.
Controversial way to look at this, but surprisingly close to the truth: markets exist for the people. Companies have only one purpose: to serve the people. Their profits are merely incidental. Any type of regulation (or lack thereof) can be traced back to this rule.
Freedoms exist only to let companies thrive insofar as that then lets them sell goods that benefit the people. Once that stops, the freedoms stop.
I'm being slightly dry cut, but this is a good rule of thumb when looking at society. It's easy to forget about the bigger picture and think that companies have any type of inherent right to exist. They don't. They're here for us. Of course, theory vs practice, yada yada. but again: rule of thumb for regulations.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#25Promoting 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.
I avoided the word "monopoly" for a reason. The internet isn't a finite natural resource, Google doesn't own it, there are other players in the field, and nothing stops new players fron entering.
You're also interpreting the word "big" perhaps too literally. In your example, Apple is not big in the sense I mean. Microsoft might be, but that doesn't mean I agree with the judgement against them.
If people like your product so much that 95% of the market uses it, I don't see the abuse.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#26Google's flagship product is the Google search engine, which provides search results to consumers, who pay for the service with their data. anyone else finding the plainness of that last sentence to be staggering? ...
Well it's the truth, isn't it?
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#27Capitalism is like a competition that when you win you don't ever get to play again.
It's more like a game where others should have the chance to win at one point, just like you did.
And they do. I can't see how google makes that impossible for competitors, also as there are many other big player's around.
And it is allways hard to get big from being small.
This is more about politics and EU bragging itself, for doing something "fair", for the people.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#28what's stopping google from shutting up shop in the EU. would they have to block EU access?
how much revenue do they make from EU clients?
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#29Capitalism is like a competition that when you win you don't ever get to play again.
It's more like a game where others should have the chance to win at one point, just like you did.
And they do. I can't see how google makes that impossible for competitors, also as there are many other big player's around.
And it is allways hard to get big from being small.
This is more about politics and EU bragging itself, for doing something "fair", for the people.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#30Not sure I get the logic here. Will they be fined next for showing the Google Maps embed (and street view) when you search for places nearby? What's the difference?
I have to say that's a good question about maps. not sure why you're getting down voted.