Google Takes Fight To Topple Record Fine Over Android To EU's Top Court 35
Google will take its appeal of the record $4.5 billion European Union antitrust fine over its dominance in the Android mobile market to the bloc's top court. From a report: The penalty hits at the heart of the US tech giant's power over the Android mobile-phone ecosystem, and in September judges at a lower court mostly sided with the European Commission's arguments but reduced the overall fine to $4.3 billion.
This Android project is just not working, Google (Score:4, Funny)
I think it's time you cancelled it.
Re:This Android project is just not working, Googl (Score:4, Insightful)
More like American companies finding out that yes rules do apply to them.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
More like American companies finding out that yes rules do apply to them.
And the value of regulation, not competition?
Here in the hiterlands, we would more often create a competing system (although they tend to settle in to just 2 systems) but the point is, why not create an EU based OS that will improve on iOS or Android, and allow the market to sort things out.
I suppose it is just easier and quite profitable to just levy fines. Ironically, there is more profit when you keep on fining people. Because fining groups in billions of dollars, is an EU business. Look for someth
Re: (Score:2)
What competition? Where? Certainly not in the Americas.
Re: (Score:2)
What competition? Where? Certainly not in the Americas.
I'm not talking about the USA - I'm talking about 5the EU, which is whining about competition, and has such a rageboner that they are extracting billions.
They can't create competition for Google, so they'll settle for a big chunk of Google's money.
It's really kind of sad, yaknow?
Anyhow - keep on taking money from the people who make it.
As I noted before - once you take billions from people as penalties or taxes to fix some terrible wrong, you end up needing that terrible wrong to continue.
Or
Re: (Score:2)
"They can't create competition for Google, so they'll settle for a big chunk of Google's money."
Yes, a European company is taxing an American company.
How DARE they ?!
Re: (Score:2)
"They can't create competition for Google, so they'll settle for a big chunk of Google's money."
Yes, a European company is taxing an American company.
How DARE they ?!
When a country taxes something that they declare as doing undesirable, they do not want the undesirable thing to stop. It must continue so that thye EU can continue to profit from the undesirable action to continue.
Go ahead and to it - Do you want the money, or do you want the action to stop? You cannot have both. Because unless the EU countries have completely discarded their history, their people are not their highest priority.
Re: (Score:2)
Considering the market cap of Alphabet is over $1 trillion, I don’t think this will hurt their bottom line.
Re: (Score:1)
Market cap is just public perception. ArchieBunker doesnt know even the basics of business? Google sell phones, not shares. People with shares sell shares.
Increase it by inflation - at least!! (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a large enough fine that Google might almost notice. So let's be kind - and only have the appeal court increase it by the inflation rate since it was amended ;) Next time one might actually hurt.
Re: (Score:2)
What do they want? (Score:2)
Re:What do they want? (Score:4, Insightful)
All they have to do is not abuse their market position. I know, that's a big ask of an American company, used to doing business in an environment where being held to account for anticompetitive behavior is spectacularly unlikely.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
All they have to do is not abuse their market position. I know, that's a big ask of an American company, used to doing business in an environment where being held to account for anticompetitive behavior is spectacularly unlikely.
Is it really abuse that the EU is worried about? I see billions of dollars in fines as a very compelling income source.
Of course, Europe has always been pretty ethical, and cares deeply about all their citizens.
Re: (Score:3)
Here is what it seems to be about:
Google stifles competition in the digital ad technology market by favoring its own ad services for buying display ads at the expense of rival services.
This seems to be true, whether the EU is looking for a shakedown or not. As far as I can tell, it's not an unreasonable judgement.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's one way to parse the sentence, but it's probably not the way that was intended.
Re: (Score:2)
That's one way to parse the sentence, but it's probably not the way that was intended.
Wouldn't intentional suppressing of competitor's ads be an actual crime of fraud? companies paying for ad space are supposed to get what they are paying for.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know. I'm very weak understanding this topic since it's a legal issue, it's in the EU, and the available stories are sparse.
It looks like Google settled instead of trying to go to court, and that's why no one knows what happened. We have these quotes from a different article:
"Google is operating on multiple sides of the advertising transaction and giving both publishers and advertisers a raw deal"...."The Commission has asked third parties to delete confidential details in their submissions, usually a precursor to allowing Google to access documents following the receipt of a statement of objections"
https://www.reuters.com/techno... [reuters.com]
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know. I'm very weak understanding this topic since it's a legal issue, it's in the EU, and the available stories are sparse.
It looks like Google settled instead of trying to go to court, and that's why no one knows what happened. We have these quotes from a different article:
"Google is operating on multiple sides of the advertising transaction and giving both publishers and advertisers a raw deal"...."The Commission has asked third parties to delete confidential details in their submissions, usually a precursor to allowing Google to access documents following the receipt of a statement of objections"
https://www.reuters.com/techno... [reuters.com]
Good grief - sounds like destruction of evidence.
Re: (Score:2)
Technically the evidence is still there, it's just not going to be given to Google.
Re: (Score:2)
Technically the evidence is still there, it's just not going to be given to Google.
Which is interesting - in the USA in any proceedings, the prosecution and defense have the same evidence. Ther can be surprise witenesses, but it all has to be shared.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like you're weak in understanding this topic too.
In the USA, if you settle out of court, you don't need to provide all the evidence.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like you're weak in understanding this topic too. In the USA, if you settle out of court, you don't need to provide all the evidence.
So an appeal is a settlement out of court? You are right - my understanding is bad. Here in the hinterlands an appeal is without any doubt a court action, and if there is no evidence, there is no court action, But this is a court action,
They even say top court. They even say that Google says there are areas that require legal clarificationSo illuminate me - what do they appeal on - EU is mad at Google, so without evidence they say "Google is mean to us" Google says "No we are not!" and the judge in the t
Re: (Score:2)
Explain to me anything about the EU's court system. You know nothing. Your goal here is to complain.
Re: (Score:2)
Explain to me anything about the EU's court system. You know nothing. Your goal here is to complain.
And you are wasting your time - you can educate me in how evidence can be destroyed or purposely withheld, and how a court is not a court in the EU.
Otherwise you are just a low level troll.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm not a google fanboy by a longshot, but the EU clearly has an agenda that isnt "protect the people from evil"
If this were the EUs first weak-sauce word-games shit they were using to shake down american tech companies then one might, possibly, believe that maybe, just maybe, they just have a hard time articulating the crime but its still a real crime.
We are approaching a dozen in a row now... outside of t
Re: (Score:2)
And yet there arent claims of fraud... possibly because of lack of anything resembling evidence. I'm not a google fanboy by a longshot, but the EU clearly has an agenda that isnt "protect the people from evil"
If this were the EUs first weak-sauce word-games shit they were using to shake down american tech companies then one might, possibly, believe that maybe, just maybe, they just have a hard time articulating the crime but its still a real crime.
You hit it! Shakedown is the exact correct word for what they are doing.
Anyone have good budgetary info for the EU. It's kinda difficult to hide that much money, and it isn't a leap of logic to think maybe a few individuals are a lot richer from these shakedowns.
Re: (Score:1)
The only reason for someone to want to live in that world, is for them to want to say more than is actually true, but they also want the plausible deniability of "thats not what I meant" while being the intentionally misleading (dishonest) fuck they are.
Re: (Score:2)
This:
"ad services for buying display ads"
should be considered a noun phrase [wikipedia.org].
Monopoly Worries != Monopoly (Score:2)
There are things about Android I don't like that have nothing to do with the technology, but the integration. I see Google doing the old Microsoft integration game-tying more and more of their services into Android. "You have to have this to have Android" which we all know is bullshit. I shouldn't have to have a Google Account or Play Store etc. tied into the O/S. But then again I should be able not to have Facebook and a ton of bloatware installed on every new phone that I buy too. Let people opt in dammit
Re: (Score:2)
Full text (Score:1)