Google and Apple lose their court fights against the EU and owe billions in fines
Google and Apple lose their court fights against the EU and owe billions in fines
Google has lost its final legal challenge against a European Union penalty for giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage over rivals in search results, ending a long-running antitrust case that came with a whopping fine
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Ok.....but now what forces these companies to actually pay? What happens if they just DON'T pay?
Additional fines and, if necessary, sanctions. If you refuse to pay a fine imposed by the EU then guess what? You can’t do business in the EU any more.
BAN HAMMER
Ban from what exactly?
Operating in the EU?
But what if they keep doing it anyways?
They have offices and datacenters in the EU. So forced physical entry and interruption to their operations would be the next escalation step.
But what if they hire mercenaries to force access to their physical locations?
At that point it's an act of rebellion against that nations authority over its territory, and the police/armed forces may step in.
I see what you're doing but that chain of thought doesn't lead anywhere.
They could force ISPs to block, not allow physical hardware sales in stores, take over any assets (offices), confiscate their server farms. There's lots that can be done.
Oh, we are being enthusiastic about the state boot again.
I mean, since corps are already using it to their ends, then it'd be probably a good thing to stomp them right back with that boot.
But I'd like a clean humanist solution more.
That'd involve, for example, commissioning a FOSS P2P post-Web system which would replace Google's and Facebook's and others' services. A few dozens of nation states, not poorest on Earth, could do that.
That system would be simpler and cheaper than their missiles and jet planes and drones, while so tremendously useful to kill once and for all this particular threat.
Like those Locutus and ghost keys things, which are not a working thing yet, but very promising.
They lose their business license. Shut down the retail locations. Customs will seize all imports of their goods into the country. They can do a lot to make it so trying to circumvent the system just isn’t worth the hassle. Their income from that country will plummet regardless.
Police?
Those who continue to do business with them will be punished
Almost 500 million users market.
The removal of all of their products in the EU, and the blockage of their services, including all those datacenters being closed down and sold.