from Hacker News

Google and Apple Face Billions in Penalties After Losing E.U. Appeals

by hellcow on 9/10/24, 11:33 AM with 43 comments

  • by jeffwask on 9/10/24, 5:29 PM

    Just ran into this on Amazon looking to buy a vacuum cleaner, the initial search top search results where all refurbs being sold back by the Amazon refurb service and cost more than the retail price of the same vacuum directly from the Shark store. I had to sculp my search to actually get to the real vendor store (Shark) on Amazon.

    You need to be a query engineer to overcome the perverse search algorithm that goes out of its way to sell you junk and knock off's. It didn't used to be this way and how much revenue is enough revenue when it comes at the expense of the consumers.

    I can't imagine how difficult it is for regular consumers who haven't developed these skills as part of their job to navigate these sites now.

  • by DangitBobby on 9/10/24, 2:39 PM

    Can anyone knowledgeable about this stuff explain this?

    > “This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to,” Apple said in a statement on Tuesday. “The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the U.S.”

    Is Apple being treated differently here in any way than other international companies?

  • by jdalgetty on 9/10/24, 12:10 PM

    Let’s see how much of these fines actually get paid.

  • by dizzydiz on 9/10/24, 12:46 PM

    Ireland were petitioning heavily for them not to pay, but now get a windfall all the same.

  • by fidotron on 9/10/24, 12:49 PM

    The true losers here are Ireland.

    It is interesting how places like Luxembourg get away with similar antics.

  • by zer0c00ler on 9/10/24, 12:22 PM

    Wild that this about behavior from 7 years ago - imagine additional fines that will need to be paid in 7 years for current market manipulation by some of these giant players (incl in US). Things are moving really slow. The amounts are also just a drop in the bucket...

    Splitting up Google seems more and more likely, probably would raise the overall market cap and drive innovation

  • by pfdietz on 9/10/24, 12:18 PM

    At some point the US just engages in trade retaliation over this.

  • by limbero on 9/10/24, 12:24 PM

  • by deafpolygon on 9/10/24, 12:27 PM

    Guess it's time for the EU to milk that cash cow.