Posted on 04/03/2015 12:11:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Google has a staggering 90% dominance of all search in the EU, making it much more influential than it is in the U.S., where it currently holds 75% dominance, says Business Insider). Experts told The Wall Street Journal that it is easier to bring an antitrust lawsuit to the EU commission than to a U.S. court: Unlike in the U.S., where antitrust investigators must prove their case to a judge, the EU Commission acts as prosecutor, judge, and jury in competition cases...
If convicted, Google could be forced to pay as much as 10% of its annual revenue, which amounted to $66 billion in 2014. This is in line the $1.8 billion penalty that Microsoft paid out in 2012 after losing an antitrust suit to the EU commission, which charged the software titan with bundling Internet Explorer to secure browser dominance.
If Google does end up losing, it will be a scare story for the American tech titans that have operated in the EU with relative impunity. Though yet to be formally charged, Facebook was recently officially accused of explicitly violating EU privacy laws by continuing to track users who had opted out. President Obama in February dismissed the EU's antitrust claims in a Re/code interview, chalking them up to the EU playing aggressive politics in order to carve out space for its own businesses to flourish. In another sign that the EU has finally begun to play hardball with American tech companies, regulators have begun looking into Apple's upcoming streaming music service launch, specifically whether Apple will use its music industry clout to steal talent from free streaming services (logically, from the king of free streaming, the Sweden-based Spotify).
(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...
But it's about justice, not just about the money. /s
Scroogle
Gittum, euroweenies
Who got dat money?
This is a clear violation of the Search Engine Fairness Act.
This is a definite popcorn moment.
Gee I thought it was only Microsoft’s monopoly that anyone cared about?
Google vs EU
Iran vs ISIS
Hillary vs scroobama
So much popcorn -— so little time!
And Net Neutrality. And probably the Fairness Doctrine. And the Nuremberg Laws.
Popcorn? A white symbol of white privilege!!! ;’)
The EU can’t be bought off, the EU already has de facto control of the purse. This is just a shakedown, plain and simple.
They got board with that. /rimshot
A salt and buttery!
It’s the socialist way. Punish success and reward mediocrity.
RE: Its the socialist way. Punish success and reward mediocrity..
IMHO is more complicated than that.
Google is a bad actor in not respecting EU privacy laws, data ownership and the right to be forgotten.
Google has also announced their intention to control / restrict search engine results according to their determination of how “truthful” the data is for a website.
Between FCC oversight, net neutrality (covert Fairness doctrine) and Google’s vetting search engine results, along with their cooperation with the WhiteHut, NSA/DHS and being major supporters of democrats, it’s a good development that someone is taking them on.
It’s a pity that it’s a foreign entity, and says much about our own poor state of conservative opposition party and 1st & 4th ammenment privacy advocacy.
Thanks for shedding additional light on the situation.
I never use Google any more. I steer clear of Google like poison ivy!
:’)
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