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Trump Slams EU Over $5 Billion Fine on Google (reuters.com)
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the European Union and said the bloc was taking advantage of the United States, pointing to the record $5 billion fine European antitrust regulators imposed on Google. From a report: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House next Wednesday to discuss trade and other issues. "I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google. They truly have taken advantage of the U.S., but not for long!" Trump said in a post on Twitter .
Trumps actions isn't going to help. It will just strengthen the EU Resolve to enforce it.
The problem is the world is so integrated with the US economy, that they need to play nice with the US however, current dummassery from the people granted power in the US Government. Means the world is going to find ways to uncouple its dependence on the US, as it is becoming considered too irrational and unpredictable.
This uncoupling does include US Companies and their dependence on every resource.
That said, EU has been rather consistent legally with Microsoft and Intel. They tend not to like near monopolies as much as the US does. (At least the ones they don't have control over)
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Awesome, I'm all for paying for Android if I get an option NOT to install Google Play Services and other crapware.
The EU problem is that Google is using contracts to enforce provisions with free software. The solution is for Google to charge a license fee and then use contracts to enforce provisions on licensed software. This might work out better for Android users as it would also fix OS fragmentaton by preventing carriers from selling new phones with an obsolete version of Android.
Goodbye, Slashdot!
>So they can continue this practice indefinitely and just pay the tax if they want.
That's pretty much standard for corporations, regardless. Fines are pretty much the only punishments applicable to corporations, short of dissolving their charter or banning them from doing business.
So, corporation breaks law, corporation gets fined, corporation pays fine and continues breaking the law because paying the fine is more profitable than obeying the law - that's how it's been done the world over for decades - Microsoft was notorious for that. The EU seems to have taken the lead however in establishing future fines as well, so that the company doesn't have to be re-sued for continuing to break the law, they just automatically get continuing fines so long as they're not in compliance, which increases their cost and decreases costs on the legal system.
I would like to see it go a step further myself. Say a 10% increase for every month they continue to break the law. Make sure their bean counters can see the oncoming storm of exponential growth looming in the future, so that they have serious incentive to set things right, rather than just regarding it as an overhead cost of doing business.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
I love to break it to you but he does speak on behalf of all Americans. He is the leader of the nation and the top diplomat. He is your president. :)
If those frustrated people wanted to "piss off liberals" judging your post (and past posts) then it seems like mission accomplished.
thrown at me for daring to speak against
Actually, speaking from experience, any pro-Trump comment is modded to oblivion with a lot of toxic responses. No one is afraid to speak out against Trump. Literally no one. More people are afraid to speak in defense of anything Conservative. Especially, if you are surrounded by left wingers. Just look at Hollywood and Universities. As a recent example, see Mark Duplass and the Tweet he made saying Ben Shapiro's intentions are good and the subsequent backlash of left wingers. How dare he!
Daring to speak against Trump? lol. Sure thing buddy.
No, it does not. This is what we've been mostly doing over the last 30 years when our workers' wages have stagnated for the last 30 years. This way of doing things has seen the near-collapse of our manufacturing base, with widespread underemployment and unemployment and Trump is putting a stop to it.
Nicely done getting all worked up about the first half of a sentence while ignoring the critical second half! The near-collapse of our manufacturing base is because it's cheaper to make things in other countries. Correct. But you ignored the second half of that very sentence which said,
...and spend the resources we'd have normally spent making it on something we can do more efficiently.
That's the missing part. We haven't done that. What "we've" done is pocket the money we saved and failed to reinvest it back into another product or service. You know, those things created by people doing a thing we call a job.
Just because the US has failed on this doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do.
Isolationist trade policies make just about everything cost more while everyone else willing to trade globally gets cheaper goods and services, and a higher quality of life. The issue isn't in the global market. It's in the the social and political systems that deny the full benefit of the global market from a subset of the population.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor