41–50 of 65 posts
You'll have more sorrows after drinking some Beaujolais. It's incredible that this is one of the best known wine regions in France. At most barely-drinkable, Beaujolais is inferior to most French wine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This time, yes, because it's about privacy and the CNIL can't do much more than 150,000€. But France also asks Google for 1 billion € of unpaid taxes over the last years, and this time I guess they will really try to avoid paying (hopefully they won't be able to, but we'll see).
American billion or European billion? In this case I think the distinction is important (I guess it's the first case... the latter would be... big, very big, hugely, mindbogglingly big)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't worry, (US) corporations will be able to sue (EU) states soon when they don't like their laws [1] . Line of argumentation: "Europe has an unreasonably high standard [in it's protective laws], and not one based on science" [2] [1] http://www.euractiv.com/specialreport-eu-us-trade-talks/liti... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcoue-mlQxw&t=58
Even so, this issue has nothing to do with a corp suiting a state. Any one can sue a state if its under some larger (eg. federal) umbrella. Google are suing France because they conform to EU Law rather than French law, and would like European courts to resolve the issue.
The EU can issue Directive, that laws that represent the strict minimum to comply. Then the individual state has to actually pass a national law that implements the directive.
Three options here. The state does not want to implement the law and get fined. The state implements the law following closely the Directive. Or it can go further than the directive, like, in the case of the French privacy law, add more requirements.
Our system as flaws but I'm not to kind on Google messing around it. It could very well set an unfortunate precedent. EU Directive are sometimes quite weak so it would be a problem to me that instead of representing the min they end up representing the max requirement.
Google is suing because they want EU to invalidate the French law. But I don't see how it could happen since AFAIK the French privacy laws predate the Directive by a quite large amount. Right now I think EU can only overrule a state law if it does not offer minimal citizen protection or if there are contradictions with the Directive. Not if they offer more protection.
As for a treaty allowing US corps to invalid EU Directives ... well, good for you but we still have national laws. I don't see how the invalidation of a Directive would invalidate automatically national law.
I might be wrong though. Would love input from someone more knowledgeable on the matter.
Well this isn't going to go well for Google. At least I sure hope it doesn't. When corporations trump nation-states, we're all screwed.
Don't worry, (US) corporations will be able to sue (EU) states soon when they don't like their laws [1] . Line of argumentation: "Europe has an unreasonably high standard [in it's protective laws], and not one based on science" [2] [1] http://www.euractiv.com/specialreport-eu-us-trade-talks/liti... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcoue-mlQxw&t=58
Earlier quoted context omitted.
American billion or European billion? In this case I think the distinction is important (I guess it's the first case... the latter would be... big, very big, hugely, mindbogglingly big)
Like I said, 1 billion €, so a "European billion". Yes it is a lot of money. But even more so is the amount of money that Google earned in France and managed not to declare to the fisc (the French tax administration).
https://www.google.com/search?q=google+france+milliard+impot...
The anglosphere uses short scale billions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Current_...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
American billion or European billion? In this case I think the distinction is important (I guess it's the first case... the latter would be... big, very big, hugely, mindbogglingly big)
Just to clarify: in continental Europe and USA billion means different number. [0] I'd guess USA billion, as it's about taxes and taxes can't be bigger than what Google is worth... [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
Well this isn't going to go well for Google. At least I sure hope it doesn't. When corporations trump nation-states, we're all screwed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't worry, (US) corporations will be able to sue (EU) states soon when they don't like their laws [1] . Line of argumentation: "Europe has an unreasonably high standard [in it's protective laws], and not one based on science" [2] [1] http://www.euractiv.com/specialreport-eu-us-trade-talks/liti... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcoue-mlQxw&t=58
Even so, this issue has nothing to do with a corp suiting a state. Any one can sue a state if its under some larger (eg. federal) umbrella. Google are suing France because they conform to EU Law rather than French law, and would like European courts to resolve the issue.
This is corporation versus civil rights in a free and democratic Western nation.
This is a level of greed driven arrogance that makes 90's Microsoft look like saints.