Crazy how American gov claims the EU is unfairly targeting American companies… if the American gov did its job to break up these monopolies, the EU wouldn’t need to in the first place!
this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
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Privacy
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American companies avoiding taxes by apparently existing entirely in foreign PO Boxes.
In all honesty there was a period of time I thought all hope was lost but EU seems to be the last knight standing against these greedy mf.
We all have to bear in mind these lawmakers are fighting against enemies with near limitless resources so give credit where it is due and let's back them up as much as possible!
They're also fighting off other legislators who are already in the pockets of these tech giants.
Do we have specific names of the people making these great decisions?
A lot of them are affiliated with the government of Ireland, which acts as a tax and legislatory haven for most of these companies in the EU. Only recently have member state data protection authorities started to bring cases forward, and IIRC Meta tried to argue itself out of a fine issued in Norway by saying that it needs to be fined in Ireland.
No tax incentives for compliance, no bargaining, no cost-of-doing-business fines.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The EU has designated six companies as gatekeepers, which it defines as large digital platforms providing “core” services like app stores, search engines, and web browsers.
Alphabet has a sprawling empire, stretching from a dominant search engine to a major web browser and popular mobile operating system, with many services interlinked to augment their power.
Apple has fiercely contested its services falling under the DMA, arguing that it actually runs five separate App Stores (which would be conveniently small enough to avoid the EU regulation) instead of a single platform.
While that gambit wasn’t successful, it did convince the EU commission that iMessage doesn’t qualify as gatekeeper service, avoiding requirements to make it interoperable with other messaging platforms.
The choice to lean on a paid option resulted in a lawsuit from the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), which claimed the “very high subscription fee” meant users “do not have a real choice.” In January, Meta announced the gradual rollout of some other data protection features, including the ability to sever linked Facebook and Instagram accounts and manage them separately.
Microsoft’s Windows operating system falls under the DMA’s regulations, and that’s changing how much the company promotes — or lets users avoid — numerous other apps and services inside it.
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