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Apple, Google Could Face Large Fines Under New UK Digital Consumer Bill
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Brit here. Yes this is a dumb move by our Conservative government and I suspect it will backfire spectacularly, for the reasons mentioned by many here.
That said, the ruthless capitalism of the US is not a system I would ever want to see take hold over here. As the saying goes, Capitalism - left to its own devices - is like a runaway train; socialism is the gentle tapping of the brakes. That doesn't excuse every new regulation or every intervention of course - but as a general principle, I think it's a healthy one to live by. As often with matters of human happiness, the key is achieving balance.
That said, the ruthless capitalism of the US is not a system I would ever want to see take hold over here. As the saying goes, Capitalism - left to its own devices - is like a runaway train; socialism is the gentle tapping of the brakes. That doesn't excuse every new regulation or every intervention of course - but as a general principle, I think it's a healthy one to live by. As often with matters of human happiness, the key is achieving balance.
Got love those Apple Fanboys siding with a multibillion company instead of regulations to protect consumers. Next time your iPhone breaks outside of the 1 year warranty don’t come back crying.
The British have Arm. You know, the company that makes CPU and GPU designs used by almost all Android devices, and upon whose ISA Apple's chips are based on."Great local alternatives" That's believable in other countries, but in the UK?
The Finns have Nokia, the French have Alcatel, the Koreans have Samsung (and in a happier time, LG), and the Chinese have more than everyone else combined.
The British have... uh... positive attitudes?
It is becoming quite clear however that globalism is dying. For better or worse, it's going to be much more difficult and expensive to do business around the world. Until now, companies could more or less offer the same products and services around the world with some tweaks here and there. That is no longer the case. For Apple, it's likely to remain more profitable to remain in as many markets as they can. For smaller business and startups, that may not be the case.
Hah getting a superior product necause of regulation is awesome. It’s because of this mind set that rights to repair is the way it is in the USA. Chill out man, and let them force Apple to let you use your computer like an actual computer.
That might be true, but at least here I find state and federal politicians stupid on how they try to regulate anything. Some want to just break up things like the Ma Bell period the result was horrendous for years with phone services suffering in my opinion
Another example I will give you (I am not pro democrat, republican or libertarian just tired of incompetent and often corrupt politicians ) is when a prominent progressive talked about breaking up Apple Services and Tech so small guy could compete basically. What stupidity, politicians understand little in science or tech, I have observed and used both windows systems at work and my own home and family apple ecosystem.
I prefer hands down how well (yeah not perfectly) the apple OSs and hard ware sync and make transition and use between devices as trouble free as possible. Yep there are glitches but when I look at Microsoft Windows tech from all over the place and personally it is a pain in but to use as a person who tends to want to do it myself not get the Geek Squad from Best Buy to do it LOL.
And I always get Apple Care on my expensive apple devices and been fine so yeah 1 year is not as good as two year warrenty but no company gives them extensions for free you either pay apple care or higher prices in EU that require a 2 year warrenty.
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How a
Or make taxes lower for people struggling in the difficult economy. Lower taxes are an amazing social program.
Has canceling subscriptions and getting refunds been an issue for Mac and Windows users who have been
Why do you think it will be worse on an iPhone than on a Mac or Windows PC?
Pandora's box was wide open before Apple closed it.
Mac and Windows PC users have been
So, you would support Apple leaving the UK market entirely then? It would only greatly speed up that process; a pure consumers utopia.
While the Acorn RISC Machine was invented in Britain by British geniuses Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson afaik it’s not British owned although is still based in Cambridge.
Well Oppo and OnePlus were effectively banned from Germany, for example, so there are enforcement mechanisms and not being able to sell to the EU at all, for example, would certainly hurt.
Would any of this be painless and easily done? No of course not, but equally if you think that US tech giants are completely irreplaceable you might be in for a surprise.
In the end it might even be a net benefit by keeping more of the value in Europe and be able to drive the agenda, rather than being dependent on product decisions made in California with US consumers in mind.
Canceling services has been an issue, at least in the US, for some time. I was only recently able to cancel my NYT subscription online because CA law now requires it. Before that, you had to call or go through an online chat with a person to cancel and listen to endless sales pitches to try and get you to stay. Signing up is a few clicks, canceling is a slog. Also try canceling service with a cable company, it's a nightmare. Some companies are great at customer service, most aren't. One benefit of the App Store is that subscriptions are managed in one place, and canceling is as easy as signing up.
With all due respect, the American healthcare system is based on the idea that everything should generate a profit for someone. Contrary to popular belief, Europeans actually do understand that their national insurance contributions (or whatever they are called locally) pay for their healthcare system and that this is taken from their income.
Most Europeans are just more agnostic and do not care whether their contribution is called a tax or a fee to a private insurance company. Americans always seem entirely focused on taxes while completely ignoring similar financial burdens as if it somehow mattered where the money is going.
European countries spend less per capita on healthcare while covering more people and getting at least similar, if not better, results and coverage, but of course it's great to have the freedom to not being able to afford healthcare or losing your life savings because you had an accident.
I don't know how this isn't the smart financial decision in recognition that nothing in life is free, but you do you.
Where does this idea that there somehow is something wrong with being successful even come from? The only thing on the table is whether being successful should give you unchecked power to do whatever you want and regardless of other societal harms this may cause.
We've all been strongly moving into less, not more, social intervention over the last 40 years and I'm not sure we really have a lot of great results to show for it. Life expectancy is decreasing, income inequality is rising and economic powers seems to concentrate in fewer and fewer hands, dominated by massive multinational companies.
There's nothing wrong with a market economy or private enterprise and there isn't a single 'socialist' country in Europe. The best we can muster is countries that are somewhere on the social democratic spectrum.
But when there's a choice between shareholder value and people dying the consensus does seem to be that individual profit takes precedence over human lives.
Plus, as stated above, in their quest to not put the 'burden' on the taxpayer, they really don't care if the taxpayer pays triple in private fees to get the same or a worse service because god forbid shareholders or big corporations couldn't make a good profit out of basic necessities.
Never had a NYT sub, but I have had a WSJ sub where I had to call in to cancel or pause service. Did that multiple times without issue. And I didn't have any issue canceling my cable service over 10 years ago when I cut the cord.
Will canceling service be 100% trouble free for everyone? No. But it's not the end of the world scenario people like k1121j pretend it will be.
You know socialism is a good thing right?!
The pavements , roads, schools, libraries, police forces, fire engines, street lighting, judiciary you rely on, they all exist through the means of a society working together to pool costs and widen access!
Just imagine capitalism gone wild and you had to pay for every mile of tarmac you ever used. Every photon of light you got from the street lamps.
Never ever has happened to me or 99% of users.
It would allow room for competitors to emerge. After being established in the UK without competition by Google et al., such a competitor could more easily expand internationally. Google et al. probably don’t want to provide for such an opening.
Are the fines to bring these companies to heal or to flush out the Government coffers?
Things like this are why we won the war...sounds like they adapted the one from the EU
You think those regulations are bad? Google what an "Ordnungsamt" is.
Here are a few examples of Germany:
I could go on and on
- You are not allowed to vacuum clean between 1pm and 3 pm (resting hour) or Sundays*
- You are not allowed to throw away your glass after 7 pm or on Sundays (too much noise)
- Your dog leash is only allowed to be 1 meters on streets or 2 meters at parks **
- You are not allowed to wash your car on the street (oil could spill to the ground water)
- Your dog is only allowed to bark 30 minutes per day, only 10 minutes at a time. No barking between 1 pm and 3 pm and 7 pm to 8 am
- No loud noise after 10 pm (neighbors are very serious about that one!)
*people still do it and so do I but if you have a bad relationship with your neighbours, they could call the "Ordnungsamt"
** depends on the city / state
Note: I only posted this to point out the cultural differences and why those company regulations may seem excessive to Americans but pretty normal and reasonable to us since we are "used to it"
There are plenty of private hospitals and insurance companies that operate for profit in Europe.
The existence of contradictions doesn't mean larger trends aren't true. The US healthcare system overall is a for-profit exercise and a very ineffective one at that, even though it obviously generates good results in some areas.
We have been moving away from social democratic principles and you're attributing the fallout to socialism? That's interesting mental gymnastics.
Besides, last time I checked the US wasn't some kind of utopia without massive income inequality, crippling education costs or negligible cost of living so, you know, capitalism "looks great on paper but fixes nothing." A bit simplistic? Agreed.
So going back to what the article is about, small business simply cannot grow where they are being crushed by big corporations.
The digital device you hold in your hand is in the process of becoming a piece of infrastructure necessary to participate in society. That may sound overly dramatic but think about it: it's the gate to your finances, to access some public services, it's the thing on which you as a company want to reach consumers both for the physical and digital economy etc etc etc.
If Apple and Google decide to not host your service on their marketplaces you are done for. If iOS dominates your country any competitor to Apple Pay is likely doomed.
We could go on, but the point is that these are not just consumer electronics anymore but they have a very real and tangible role in society and the local economy and so it's only natural and understandable that governments wouldn't leave all of the policy making to private enterprise to the detriment of its own economy.
Why should they?