Google Challenges Record EU Antitrust Fine in Court (reuters.com) 52
Google appealed on Monday against a record 2.4-billion-euro ($2.9 billion) EU antitrust fine, with its chances of success boosted by Intel's partial victory last week against another EU sanction. From a report: The world's most popular Internet search engine, a unit of the U.S. firm Alphabet, launched its appeal two months after it was fined by the European Commission for abusing its dominance in Europe by giving prominent placement in searches to its comparison shopping service and demoting rival offerings.
I want a price comparison site in my Google result (Score:1, Insightful)
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I want a price comparison site in my Google results. I do. When I'm looking for a moderate to major purchase, it's convenient and helpful. I don't want to figure out, and keep up to date on, which shopping site has good results for one product or another - I want a unified search that gives me good results.
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No, it's idiotic. Just go directly to Amazon to shop. Nobody has better prices or better selection.
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So go to the site you trust instead of searching Google, then searching some other site? Its like going to the classifieds to find ads for another classified service. How often does your newspaper list other newspapers?
When Google wasn't deranking these sites searching for any product resulted in pages of these junk comparison sites which only exist to use affiliate links.
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Then, what is the purpose of Google, if you can't trust them and have to go by your own?
The reason that EU fined Google is that they have a demanding market share, and therefore also a responsibility to not abuse it.
I will look forward to see the outcome of the court case, but I will also say that I am worried as a consumer, if I can't trust the search engine I am using to deliver an honest result, because then I am screwed, as well as everyone else using it.
If that search engine is a minor search engine I
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Then, what is the purpose of Google, if you can't trust them and have to go by your own?
Its about trusting them to find relevant search results - do you also expect Google's results page to also include Bing's search query, Yahoo's results page, etc. etc.?
Good to see that fines are getting realistic (Score:5, Insightful)
Even Google can't dismiss a fine of almost 3 billion dollars as a mere cost of doing business. Penalties for corporate abuses need to be truly painful if they're to serve as deterrents.
Re:Good to see that fines are getting realistic (Score:4, Insightful)
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Good to see slashdot user ids keep growing. Yay astroturfing!
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Good to see slashdot user ids keep growing. Yay astroturfing!
Huh? I'm not sure what you're referring to. If it's my relatively high UID you're talking about, then please note that although I'm far below the rarefied atmosphere of a mid-six-digiter like you, I'm hardly new here. As for "astroturfing" - say what?
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It will take them MINUTES to make that back!!!!
Actually, it's about 40% of google's most recent quarterly earnings.
Re:$2.9 BILLION!! (Score:5, Funny)
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It seems a little low (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's hope the appeal will double the fine.
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As it should for wasting the court's time. Google should be careful. They can easily be replaced. There are lots of people ready and willing to fill their shoes. They don't have the kind of clout that the banks have to rob people blind and get bailed out every few years.
Re:It seems a little low (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, they can be easily replaced, which means they shouldn't be fined - with low barriers to entry we don't need market interference.
Re:It seems a little low (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, they can be easily replaced
Yeah that's why all it's competitors had such a roaring success even with one company putting $5.5 billion into attempting to replace them.
with low barriers to entry
Yeah all you need to do is start and internet and mobile phone company with complete vertical integration and 100s of millions of customers world wide all promoting your search function over the competitors. Eeeeeeeeeaasy.
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Europe is simply trying to go after foreign companies to make money from, rather than tax their own.
The overwhelming majority of companies that have been fined in Europe are European. They may not all make the frontpage of slashdot because most aren't IT companies, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen.
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Is that "ACME company" a monopoly or extremely dominant in the marketplace?
Keyword (in the title, quite visible): "antitrust"
Re:What if Google doesn't pay? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Google leases those places
Are you sure? I'm pretty sure that they bought the building near Kings Cross, at least.
As far as revenue, it takes all of about 2 days to switch banks for processing
Doesn't help. Any bank that does business in the EU will freeze accounts when required to by law or lose their banking license in the EU. Unless they decide to go entirely to taking payments in Bitcoin, there is no way of avoiding this (and if they looked seriously as if they were trying then they'd also be hit with money laundering charges).
And yes - you could prohibit Google apps from cell phones - and piss off 70% of the population (Android OS is about 70% of all mobile OSes in Europe)
Android OS isn't a Google product, the Google Apps that most handset makers sh
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Because Google knows how valuable the European market is, and they would hate to simply hand it over to a competitor.
Same reason why big corps like Coca-Cola and McDonalds bitch and moan about the Danish tax rates, but they never actually follow through on their threats and actually leave the country. Because they know it would be a valuable market to simply hand over to a competitor, for free.
I wonder if they're appealing so... (Score:1)
They can find out how to pay the fine, what with vast amounts of their loot hidden away from tax gatherers. That and if they can magically find the ready cash how they can explain why it shouldn't be taxed like your run-of-the-mill regular business.
Well, if they're so upset with Google (Score:1)
Well, if they're so upset with Google, then the answer's pretty clear.
Fire wall off Europe until they come to their senses. Should take, I don't know.... Three seconds?
Google is not a monopoly. There are other search engines. Use *them* if you don't like Google.
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"Come to their senses"?
I think taking action against a hugely dominant market leader (meeting most, if not all the marks of being a de facto monopoly) is very sensible.
Fuck the big corporations, we don't need them. There is always an alternative.
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There is always an alternative.
I thought I had made that abundantly clear.
What most seem to miss is a very simple concept, they are just too intent on taking private property (in this case, Google's) to see it.
1. Unlike Telecoms or, going back into history, railroads, or "the Seven Sisters" oil companies, Google does not prevent, nor do they present, a barrier to entry into their markets. Anyone can code up a search engine / index, Google won't stop you. Try opening a competing telephone or cable company, a
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You're making this needlessly complicated. Google is a de facto monopoly (you try and compete with them. Go ahead, see what happens) and they've been found to be abusing that power to lord over others, determining almost solely who succeeds and who fails. Therefore, regulation is needed, before their influence gets out of hand.