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Google Businesses The Almighty Buck United States

Trump Slams EU Over $5 Billion Fine on Google (reuters.com) 502

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 .
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Trump Slams EU Over $5 Billion Fine on Google

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  • TRUMP! (Score:3, Funny)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Thursday July 19, 2018 @09:46AM (#56974038)

    Trump posted something on Twitter? Well that's worth an entire post.

  • by Daneel Olivaw R. ( 5113539 ) on Thursday July 19, 2018 @09:53AM (#56974102)
    Also, enough posts about trump making asinine comments, it stopped being funny in 2016. I am outside US, I am sick of comment section filled with right vs left.
    • Also, enough posts about trump making asinine comments, it stopped being funny in 2016. I am outside US, I am sick of comment section filled with right vs left.

      Hows the job market where you live? Those of us not outside the US may have to consider alternatives. And not solely because of Trump these days.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19, 2018 @09:55AM (#56974124)

    Yeah Google are such patriots they moved their whole operations to Ireland to avoid contributing anything to the USA, combined with their little Luxembourg sandwiches meaning Trumps secretary probably contributes more, hence your infrastructure is crumbling around you while certain individuals make out like the bandits they are

    LOL MAGA

  • Insane... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by beheaderaswp ( 549877 ) * on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:07AM (#56974210)

    The EU has to regulate their markets in a way that suits their needs. There's no universal principle which dictates how to regulate a capitalist economy. There's no "one size fits all" solution.

    Most US Presidents can hardly manage their own economy. I hardly think they are qualified (or have sufficient information) to make a call for a foreign economy.

    If Google was found in violation in the EU- it's their call. Google can negotiate.

    Trump, might be considered to be defending one of our companies. Though the action is only impressive if the observer is totally clueless.

  • by Rashkae ( 59673 ) on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:09AM (#56974232) Homepage

    The real smoking gun for Google is that they forbid phone makers from releasing *any* android phone that is not on their Google Play platform. If a company wanted any Google Play supported phone, they *all* had to be Google Play phones. That's a big no no and obvious abuse of Monopoly power.

    However.... just like the time Microsoft was forced to stop dictating what software is pre-installed on PC's, government regulation here is just going to make things worse for consumers. For all it's faults and obscene privacy invasion, Google is a relatively benign overlord. If they loose the ability to dictate how phones are pre-configured, the end result will not be a utopia of phone carefully pre-configured to protect end-user privacy. It will be phone makers selling out and pre-configuring phones with malicious advertisement hijacking search engines, and app repositories stuffed with even more malware than Google's Play store.

    • Problably wont happen but I keep thinking it would be interesting if the response to one of these fines would just the be company being fined geofencing all of their devices/services and seeing what happens.

    • by atrex ( 4811433 )
      Here comes Samsung Sandroid and the Samsung Store!

      Well, Google does sell some premium handsets with their own branding now. And there's a couple third parties (OnePlus?) that sell a pretty clean stock Android. (Obviously you could still unlock any other handset and deal with custom roms and all the issues there in to get a clean install). I wish someone would go after the carriers for all the privacy invading and battery eating bloatware that they load down phones with.
    • the user can install play store pretty easily. wheres the fine for apple. you cant do anything not apple approved on there devices without hacking them.
    • However.... just like the time Microsoft was forced to stop dictating what software is pre-installed on PC's, government regulation here is just going to make things worse for consumers. For all it's faults and obscene privacy invasion, Google is a relatively benign overlord. If they loose the ability to dictate how phones are pre-configured, the end result will not be a utopia of phone carefully pre-configured to protect end-user privacy. It will be phone makers selling out and pre-configuring phones with malicious advertisement hijacking search engines, and app repositories stuffed with even more malware than Google's Play store.

      Well, for one thing this is only an issue for Google in the EU and in that neck of the woods there will not be a bonanza of “pre-configuring phones with malicious advertisement hijacking search engines, and app repositories stuffed with even more malware than Google's Play store. Anybody selling phone a like that in the EU will be having a rather serious discussion with the EU comission about some very large fines. But, fret not, Google will be free to continue its anti-competitive practices outside o

  • by Anonymous Coward

    "They truly have taken advantage of the U.S."

    Hey idiot, do you understand that Google are the ones who are taking advantage of everybody on the fucking planet, including your own stupid ass?

    • if you see there crying about the play store on 3rd party firmware. that fyi can be installed by the user later. why are they not picking on apple.
  • ...we officially support trampling rules and privacy in the name of oligarch profits.
  • by Njovich ( 553857 ) on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:31AM (#56974430)

    I love Google, but what they did was textbook abuse of a monopoly. They established a monopoly, and then used that monopoly to force their other products onto consumers and companies. That's just a textbook version of abusing your monopoly power. Then they also made the mistake of not just doing that, but forcing major corporations with massive lobbying power like Samsung to ship their products. EU regulates competition tightly, and enforces this against EU companies just as fiercefully as against US companies. Google could have seen this one coming from miles. They probably just thought this type of fine and ruling was a fair price to pay for it.

  • just stop selling to the eu. tell them to stuff there fine. what are they going to do. the brits can bluff all they like but as soon as a majority of the company's stop selling to the eu that law will go away real fast. watch how fast the eu public loses there mind when they dont have YouTube.
  • How is what Google did considered monopolistic practices? First of all, Google does not have a monopoly on mobile phones. Apple is doing just fine in that arena and if you don't like the conditions that Google imposes then go get an iPhone. This is not like the Microsoft case where, at the time, well over 90% of all personal computers were running Windows and there was no viable alternative.

    I thought the whole idea of having a "store" to download apps was to help protect users from getting malware on their

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