Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 414 posts

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#71

Post by thefounder »

maaaats wrote: post #5

Is there an other article with some background / explanation what Google did in this case? That they were "blocking others" doesn't tell me much. Edit: The linked article is now updated, at the time it was basically just a paragraph stating the fine.

Basically Google told publishers not to use any other advertising platform if they want Adsense.

""""In 2006, Google started to include "exclusivity clauses" in contracts which stopped publishers from placing ads from Google rivals such as Microsoft and Yahoo on search pages, the Commission said."""

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#72

Post by pluma »

AnaniasAnanas wrote: post #24
kabsekabtak wrote: post #9

Google needs to be broken up. If Microsoft could be broken up, Google deserves it 100x. They control way too much.

Google does indeed need to be broken up, but much less than Microsoft. Google has actually done good for the whole world with their open source initiatives, opening of webm, etc - plus all(?) of their products are easily replaceable, unlike say windows which has exclusive programs written for it.

> unlike say windows which has exclusive programs written for it

(cries in Firefox)

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#73

Post by chii »

askmike wrote: post #51
kypro wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good for US tech because it is yet another cost and restriction EU startups have to face before they can grow to scale and profitability.

It applies to everyone who wants to serve EU customers. As for startups: depending on what kind of personal data you are collecting, being GDPR complicit shouldn't take more than a day. If it takes longer you are building a business around personal data, and I think you should know your stuff (not just GDPR, but also what kind of data you are collecting and why).

> being GDPR complicit shouldn't take more than a day.

either you're overly optimistic, or you have some 100x rock star doing the impl. because it took over 1 year to implement all of the GDPR required features for me, and we don't even store that much private data!

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#75

Post by black_puppydog »

kierenj wrote: post #35

I was wondering where funds from such a fine go: "Fines imposed on companies found in breach of EU antitrust rules are paid into the general EU budget. This money is not earmarked for particular expenses, but Member States' contributions to the EU budget for the following year are reduced accordingly. The fines therefore help to finance the EU and reduce the burden for taxpayers."

sounds reasonable to me. this way, you get a disincetive to break antitrust rules for google, while not opening up a fight for shares of the money by their competitors afterwards. EUR 1.5b (~$1.7b) is a nice sum to fight over, after all.

edit: of course, how big the disincentive is is up for debate. :P

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#76

Post by kowdermeister »

kabsekabtak wrote: post #9

Google needs to be broken up. If Microsoft could be broken up, Google deserves it 100x. They control way too much.

They've already seen that coming, that was probably a motivator to create Alphabet. Breaking them forcefully would do nothing. What do you think would happen? Decouple AdWords from search? Ok. Decouple Google cloud? Hmmm. Ok.

The end result would be that project leaders would be CEO-s belonging to Alphabet, but everything would be still running on the same architecture, platform, services.

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#77

Post by Aissen »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #70
yulaow wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fine is only part of the EUC action, the fined entity has also the obligation to change their behavior as suggested by EUC to stop asap their abusive actions.

How do you reconcile this with the knowledge they’ve been fine $x billion every year for the past 3 years (at least?)? At what point does Big Corp run out of things to abuse? If the fines just become a cost of doing business the finance and legal teams can probably get creative and invent new ways of mashing up old abuses over time. I think the underlying theme here, then, is that the fines are necessary but not suff…

That's why there's this provision in the official EU press release:

Finally, Google is also liable to face civil actions for damages that can be brought before the courts of the Member States by any person or business affected by its anti-competitive behaviour. The new EU Antitrust Damages Directive makes it easier for victims of anti-competitive practices to obtain damages.

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#78

Post by black_puppydog »

feketegy wrote: post #10

Then look at GDPR, which is a mess imho, and article 13 too

If the GDPR looks like a mess to you, it is because it makes it blatantly obvious and very visible how strongly the entire internet industry rejects the mere idea of privacy respecting services.

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#79

Post by black_puppydog »

curt15 wrote: post #65
robin_reala wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the result of a (later overturned) ruling in 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor...

So basically nothing happened in the end?

evidently. but it was seriously considered. and they "only" controlled desktop at the time. which was everything. but still! :D

Re: Google hit with €1.5B fine from EU over advertising

#80

Post by chewz »

arethuza wrote: post #49
okket wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a commentary in the German media in context of Brexit that I think really think sums the EU and her role in the world up nicely: "Brexit shows what we have in the EU. She clears up issues among neighbors, grating them into rules and sometimes unsatisfactory compromises. But she grates them small, in a civilized and peaceful way. That's her big achievement." (rough translation by me, sorry) https://twitter.c…

Worth remembering that a lot of people in the UK, possibly a majority by this point, are perfectly clear as to what we stand to lose if the UK leaves the EU. :-(

Pack your bags and come over here. ;-)
Post reply on HN