Europe hits Meta, Apple with €700M in fines for flouting DMA Meta and Apple have earned the dubious honor of being the first companies fined for non-compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act, which experts say could inflame tensions between US President Donald Trump and the European bloc. Apple was penalised to the tune of €500 million ($570 million) for violating anti-steering rules …
"The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,"
If true, please provide the evidence, simply whinging that you're a victim doesn't make it so.
"Meta chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan said. "This isn't just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service."
If "inferior service" means "we won't be able to sell your data in order to serve up targeted ads!" to you, then I think you've got the point of the matter while still whinging about how "unfair" you believe this to be.
According to EU law, you do not have the automatic right to users' data just because it makes you a profit.
Oh, and as an American, I say this: worrying about Trump's reaction does NOT mitigate the rule of LAW. If both Aople and Meta have a problem with honoring the laws in the jurisdictions that they operate in...too bad. Nobody owes you a good quarterly profit margin. If Trump has a problem with EU law then revoke his visitation rights and tell him to stay on his American golf courses.
"then revoke his visitation rights and tell him to stay on his American golf courses"
If only. For some unthinkable reason Starmer's invited the Orange Stain on a state visit to Britain, when the majority of the population would rather the rude, flabby bully stayed at home.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no-2nd-state-visit-for-donald-trump?source=rawlink&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=rawlink&share=a247b383-4ad4-404c-ac02-16ec35531b4b
For months, it would ask me to choose whether I wanted to start paying, or accept my data to be used for ads. I never answered. I hoped eventually they would give up and just show me ads without using my data, but what I got is even better: I have no ads in Facebook. They probably did not implement ads that don't use private data, so they can't show me anything.
While we can probably expect plenty of huffing and puffing, wailing and gnashing of teeth and, in the case of Donny Dumb, incoherent shouting, in America, elsewhere countries will study the rulings, and any subsequent court cases carefully. Both decisions are perfectly reasonable and demonstrate that the DSA is far from the monster many have claimed. Other countries have imposed similar fines and requirements and will no doubt continue to do so and threats from America won't help because the potential loss of markets is much greater than the fines themselves.
But the question is whether the EU regulators are effective in driving compliance, and in the case of big US companies I'm hugely sceptical.
A common misconception is that a regulator is a policeman, there to detect and punish non-compliance; in fact a regulator has as its goal bringing companies into compliance and addressing market failures, ideally by dialogue and guidance rather than exercising legal powers. Fines are very much a last resort. Worse, fining a US company achieves nothing because for them it's simply part of the legalistic game. They'll appeal to the very highest court, and even if they end up having to pay, its just a cost of doing business and doesn't bite the people who made the decision to breach the rules. I know fines are "up to a zillion percent of global turnover", and "for every day the company is in breach" but the reality remains that the actual fines are chickenfeed to these massive companies. As a broad rule, big US companies adopt a purely imperialistic approach to regulation - they'll almost comply in Europe with US regulations (but not quite, because after all these are heathen savages who don't have any rights under the constitution). As for EU rules, they certainly don't intend to be compliant with rules written by said heathen savages, there's simply a pantomime of pretend compliance.
I'm a regulator (different field to data) and the organisation I work for was challenged by a massive US tech company with a threat of court action, because they wanted to continue do something that made them money, but imposed significant risks on their customers. Their internationally renowned law firm against out tiny team of in house lawyers who are so poorly paid that several of them have side hustles. Even so, after months of posturing, the company bottled out hours before the case was heard, and then told us that they would comply so long as we didn't publicise their disgusting attempt to evade their obligations. Yet despite these assurances, I can see everyday that this company continues to engage in the practices that expose citizens to harm.
which has made clear that it wouldn't hesitate to hit back at foreign governments that hamstrung US tech firms
Putting it in as simple words as I can: Fuck Off.
If tech firms wish to operate over here, they follow the rules that apply over here. If this means that extra steps are necessary because the US has piss-poor privacy and a general acceptance that everything is to be monetised (shall we talk about the culture of self service tills asking for a tip?!?), that's just NOT how things are over here and boo-fuckin'-hoo if there's official level pushback against these shady practices.
It is clear the US will not suffer other countries to make their own laws.
Most certainly no laws that protect their citizens. And definitely no laws protecting their citizens against the god given right of US companies to exploit Europeans to the max.
As the current US leadership wants to sell Europe to the highest bidder anyway, it would be no use for the EU to give in.
The US wont suffer other countries laws because they don't even enforce their own. The rule of law in the US is a shambles under trumps lazy eye.
Best to batten down the hatches and wait for the idiocracy to burn itself out. With luck he causes America enough damage they realise and vote more wisely next time. Perhaps this debacle will finally write off 'strong man' politic.
The fines, as noted in the article, are puny for the companies involved, and again will take years of costly legal proceedings to ever get them paid out.
But even that is a bridge too far for the US companies who want subservience.
Voters (in EU) on the other hand are strongly in favor of taxing US tech companies whenever and wherever, and especially after the two months of chaos and insults.
US tech companies are not going to leave EEA because they don't get their way, and if they should, I would imagine the overall mental health of Europeans would vastly improve, so it's a win win if EU sticks to its guns.
Will be interesting to see if UK will keep the DSA in the negotiations with US, ideally they'll increase it, folding never helps.
"Bad timing, claim industry watchers, who say rulings could seriously upset an already delicate US-EU relationship"
Screw 'em. You don't get to disobey the law just because there's a tyrant in the white house. Maybe it's time we blockaded the US, sailed up the Potomac River and excised the cancer with fire again.
The spirit of 1814 still burns in our hearts.
Well, maybe the US way. Only US-Americans can be successful on that, no outsider can/could do it.
They need to be in percentage of turnover*
The FOCF is a bully and giving in to him will just get bigger demands more. And more, and more. Nothing is ever enough for that big orange toddlers vast hole.
In every sense of the word.
*Not profit. There are many ways that accountants have to make profit "disappear." No profit, no fine.
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