Wow!....Just Wow!... The European Union's antitrust regulator on Tuesday fined Alphabet's Google a record EUR2.42 billion ($2.71 billion) for favoring its own comparison-shopping service in search results and ordered the search giant to apply the same methods to rivals as its own when displaying their services. more...>http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/06/27/eu-hits-google-with-record-2-7b-antitrust-fine.html
Hope they take a huge chunk out of Amazon next. Theres a truly economically and societally destructive company. I wouldnt care if they broke Amazon up one bit and i generally despise government intervention.
Yes, EU is capable to deliver only self destructive projects. And fining of likes google enables them to do so. It is hard to imagine how low trust citizens have towards EU. And those who do trust, you can usually see on them one of following: Were out of loop, are retarded, get our tax money through redistribution EU does.
EU doesn't have the authority to break up Amazon. Amazon is a US based company. How exactly is Amazon an "economically and societally destructive company"??
I know the EU doesnt. I should have specified who "they" referred to. Companies like Amazon are driving smaller companies out of business left and right, they drive the exportation of labor or the outright replacement of humans. People who buy from companies like Amazon(theyre not the only one, theyre just the biggest now) create the weapons that are then used to destroy and enslave them financially. People shop at places like Amazon, making themselves poor in the process while destroying the economic system they depend on. Then they wonder why "the price of anything that isnt fake junk keeps going up!" and why there arent any jobs to be had.
Reverse the companies and the same arguement applies. Look at the fine that GM got for the ignition locks, something they knew about and did nothing. They did nothing even though they knew a fault exist, and continued to use the faulty ignition locks even in new models. Technically it would be criminal negligence and manslaugher knowing a fault exists and doing nothing about it. There were 124 known deaths, hundreds of known serious injuries attributed to this. There were 30 million vehicles recalled worldwide, most of these in the US. US company. Fine US$900 million. Despite selling products knowing to cause deaths, no arrests made. Volkswagen Knowingly skirting emission rules, even though the emissions are less than pickups which are exempt from the same strict rules. No deaths. No injuries. There were 500,000 vehicles affected in the US. They had to pay US4.7 billion in fines, and US$15 billion in compensation to US customers. Foreign company. Total fine (including compensation): US$20 billion. Arrests made. These happened around the same time, so a direct comparison of the fine fairness can be made. If VW were an American company, their fine would have been less than GM's. If General Motors were a foreign (German for example) company and they did the exact same thing, you can guarantee 100 percent that the fine would have been very much greater than $900 million and they would have pushed for legal action against all the management.
Somehow, I'm not surprised. Remember that the EU also forced Google to implement a "right to be forgotten" policy, where they would have to remove certain search results if someone requests it (one of the dumbest policies ever). I wonder how the EU would think if Google suddenly decided to severely limit their services in the EU? Provide on the basic services so that they don't tread on European competitors and such. Of course, this would put the EU at a massive information disadvantage...
The difference is in intent and reaction. VW intentionally falsified emissions data and had no intention of correcting the issue, though they had everything necessary to do so already available. GM actually released a technical service bulletin to address the issue with the ignition prior to the government getting involved. It takes time to engineer and test a fix for a safety related issue when it affects millions of vehicles. In VW's case, all it took was uploading the correct calibration into the vehicle's ECU, which VW already had on hand from the emissions test the vehicles were originally subjected to. VW change the ECU calibration to violate emissions regulations AFTER emissions testing was done in an attempt to avoid getting caught. In the case of GM, the flaw in the ignition was directly related to the ignition key itself, and the use of an elongated slot instead of a circular hole placed near the center. When excessive weight was placed on the key, it would shut the vehicle off. The correction for customers who complained of the issue, was to put an insert in the key to fill in the slot. Ford has used a similar design for their keys, but the ignition lock cylinder has enough tension on it, that Ford doesn't suffer the same issue. Instead, Fords end up with broken ignition lock cylinders when too much weight it placed on the ignition key. Also in GM's case, there was a question as to when upper management actually learned about the issue, whereas it's my understanding that VW's upper management was directly involved and had prior knowledge of the intent to commit *****. I'm not defending GM here as I believe they should have faced stiffer penalties due to the use of low-tension lock cylinders and the fact that engineering knew of the problem but determined that it didn't pose excessive risk. I mean, hell, Ford had to pay out over $7 MILLION to a couple that went out, got drunk, tried to take a turn in excess of 85mph with their kids in the backseat without seat belts on and killed their 2 kids....because they were driving a Bronco.... Ford did nothing wrong but was forced to pay out over $7 million.... The 2 parents are serving life sentences for DUI, 2 counts of public intoxication, 2 counts of voluntary vehicular homicide, 2 counts of child neglect and 2 counts of child endangerment....but they're millionaires now.... The judge even ruled in the case against Ford, that the parents' convictions could not be mentioned, nor could the forensic data from the police be used in their defense....
There's nothing new here. This is straight from Trump's wet dream: the USA punishes European companies, the EU punishes American companies. It's only a matter of time before the US system picks the next European target, as it's their turn, and that's eventually followed by the EU choosing another unfortunate US company.
They haven't paid it yet guys - they are considering how they are going to appeal. My money says they will get it knocked down to $100m and write it off as tax deductible under EU law by running their Euro offices in Ireland. It's a parking ticket - yet I think they should not pay it, because it really is quite stupid. Remember the 'Yellow Pages'. Every company is listed - yet if you paid the yellow pages enough money, you could get your company name listed in bold letters, or even have a full page advert in the section for your company. This, is no different. It's quite clear on the screen when it says 'promotion' or 'sponsored' and lest we not forget: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE GOOGLE.