Apple deliberately hide their true income inside the EU to avoid paying tax. It’s just easier to fine companies on their global turnover because that information is publicly available.
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White House Hits Back at Apple's Massive EU Fine
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The goal is to change behaviour. If the fine is large enough then the company with the non-compliant behaviour will have to change their behaviour in order to continue operating in the EU market.
Suppose you sell a product to 5 EU customers, if the EU believes you are causing them harm your suggestion (that it be based on size of impact) would see only a tiny fine issued that would not change your behaviour. You would continue to harm the EU customers as part of the cost of doing business. If, however, the fine is based on your global revenue (and the percentage isn't trivial) then you are much much more likely to stop harming those EU citizens.
I got your point about consumers and companies. Please read my comment again. All I wrote was that the DMA isn't only about consumers if there are other companies that supported it in part because it will help them financially. That is, unless Spotify only cares about consumers and Apple only cares about its finances.
Also, "The DMA helps American companies just as much."
Well, other than Apple and some other companies...
Again, I'm not arguing against the DMA at all. It's just important to recognize that Spotify and other companies lobbied and consulted with EU officials for years before the DMA was written. That's helpful information to know and might suggest that while aspects of the law likely benefit consumers, there could be parts of it that benefit certain companies instead of consumers.
@bcortens Well said.
I'd add that I'm OK with whatever fine calculation the EU prefers.
Simple is likely better.
The goal is to get the behavior changed, not have the fines be some ongoing thing, thus whatever is punitive and gets attention in a stern fashion is likely the best remedy.
The US has a constant problem along these lines in that they have financial penalties for illegal behavior that are LAUGHABLY pathetic in proportion to the amount the companies usually benefit from doing the bad thing.
It ends up not severing as a deterrent at all, but rather a cost of doing business.
I'd add that I'm OK with whatever fine calculation the EU prefers.
Simple is likely better.
The goal is to get the behavior changed, not have the fines be some ongoing thing, thus whatever is punitive and gets attention in a stern fashion is likely the best remedy.
The US has a constant problem along these lines in that they have financial penalties for illegal behavior that are LAUGHABLY pathetic in proportion to the amount the companies usually benefit from doing the bad thing.
It ends up not severing as a deterrent at all, but rather a cost of doing business.
WW2?
WWW!
Europe (Europeans in Europe) literally invented that WWW you just got to share your opinion on.
Lower transactions costs and more convenient means of transaction (i.e. in-app subscriptions for music streaming services) benefit both third-party companies and consumers.
Also (as we’ve seen from their Irish tax shenanigans) Apple and their lawyers are very clever and creative in reducing their revenue/profit on paper in particular jurisdictions.
Certainly no sympathies from me for calculating fines based on worldwide revenue or income.
A good point -- Simple and based upon a worldwide number makes sense.
I can't blame the EU for going that way after seeing how much "creativity" Apple* puts into deferring taxes.
*Apple is not at all alone in this -- I hate that ALL of the companies do it. To me it violates the spirit of good faith business in the regions one operates in.
If I buy a product from an electronics store in Sweden, can I hold them responsible for not telling me that I could have found the same item at a different price elsewhere? Or is it like a supermarket not showing that a competitor offers lower prices?
EU have gone crazy.
EU have gone crazy.
In fact, throwing away my issues with the DMA entirely, I'd argue that European competition law is pretty explicit about putting competition above benefit to the consumer. They'd argue that in the long run additional competition would eventually benefit society even if individual consumers are hurt in the short term. It predates the DMA, and even applies in non tech-markets in the EU too. Look at the Siemens-Alstrom merger - the EU decided a larger number of smaller competitors was preferable to a stronger EU supplier with greater scale and innovation budget that could compete against China's CRRC.
Just look at how the DMA has been implemented. Google has gotten worse in the EU, and the EU users don't like it. We now have confusing browser choice screens that gives monopolist Chrome even more market share because having Safari set as the default on 30% of devices in the EU is somehow "anticompetitive."
The purpose of the fine is to discourage behavior against EU law.
This is generally why average citizens follow the speed limit or refrain from murdering each other - the punishments for those behaviors serve to discourage them.
This just feels semantic ultimately.
Helping society via increased competition is eventually intertwined with helping consumers.
Pure wumao; And Radio Free Asia isn't, how about the many, diverse English language news services in Taiwan? There is The China Show, the two presenters lived and worked at what is called, in China, "Bái hóuzi", white foreigners who worked in advertising and English language teaching. For 14 years, they speak and read Standard Chinese fluently. They escaped, one with his Chinese wife, who is a Doctor and was pregnant, barely ahead of the Chinese police. They still have deep connections in the country. These two sounded the alarm on COVID-19 3 months before it became generally known in the West.
The UK never integrated its economy into the EU. The Pound Sterling was still the official currency of the UK, the Euro was an alternate currency. Because of this independence, Brussels could demand payment for programs on the continent, the UK often refused, Brussels tried to fine the UK for various things, and the UK told them Stick it where the sun doesn't shine. This is the reason why Apple's European HQ is at Battersea Power Station in London. Across the British Isles, Apple employs 550,000 people.
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LOL sure.
The administration complaining about economic extortion is trying to economically extort the UK.
It is extortion to try to force Apple to make the iPhone as insecure and horrible like all of the Android devices out there.
Apple's $570 million fine from the EU has triggered a sharp rebuke from the White House, which called the fine a form of economic extortion, Reuters reports.
The fine was announced on Wednesday by the European Commission, following a formal investigation into Apple's compliance with the bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of legislation aimed at curbing the market dominance of so-called "gatekeeper" companies. According to the Commission, Apple violated the DMA by restricting developers from informing users about alternative payment options outside the App Store and by preventing the distribution of iOS apps through competing app marketplaces.
Speaking to Reuters, a spokesperson for the White House condemned the EU's actions, signaling growing transatlantic tensions over regulation of U.S. technology firms:
Apple said it plans to appeal the decision. The company called it "another example of the commission unfairly targeting the company" with actions that are "bad for the privacy and security of our users." The penalties represent approximately 0.1% of each company's annual revenue, which is significantly below the potential maximum fine of 10% allowed under the DMA.
The ruling comes amid ongoing trade negotiations between the EU and the U.S., which could potentially add another layer of complexity to transatlantic tech regulations.
Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Article Link: White House Hits Back at Apple's Massive EU Fine
Where a complete idiot clown occupied the office, no thanks.
Excellent work to Trump and his team. This is economic extortion by the EU plain and simple. The EU was able to get away with it for so many years because the individual previously in the White House didn't know **** from shinola so the EU ran roughshod over Apple/US companies.
President Trump isn't ****ing around here. You're no longer going to be able to treat Apple and others as your personal atm machines with your asinine laws.
Those days are over EU.
President Trump isn't ****ing around here. You're no longer going to be able to treat Apple and others as your personal atm machines with your asinine laws.
Those days are over EU.
He's already buckled to China. He thought they would blink, but they didn't.
I can put any wheels I want on my Mercedes. What are you talking about???? Seriously, my wheels are far nicer than Mercedes or Honda wheels. I can rip the engine out and put an EV motor and battery pack in it if I want. I can do whatever I want. The our example is ineffective in this debate.
No, but most of the mainstream Indian and Far Eastern news services have their own YouTube channels. Many also have apps and even podcasts. When you start listening and watching these news sources, you realize just how bad state-side reporting is. For container shipping, the best source is What's Going on With Shipping Sal is reporting that things are slowing down, but devastating for China, as the usual relabeling ports are now closed to them. You will learn that while Trump is the squawking parrot in front of the cameras, it's Scott Bessent and his team in Treasury who are the ones using the thumbscrews on China. Wall Street insiders are saying that Bessent might be one of the best Treasury Secretaries the US has ever had. They describe him as a quiet Great White shark in international monetary dealings. He learned this in the early 1990s when he worked for George Soros. Bessent had a big falling out with Soros and his oldest son, Robert Soros, in 2013.
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You mean like Trump is on a Putin leash?
There are 22,000 Apple staff in the EU and a huge chunk of revenue from the EU (63% of the same revenue that the US brings in). Plus the dollar has gone to crap. They aren't going to throw it away. They will get in line. And I will enjoy watching people being disappointed by this.
As for economic extortion, it's not that, it's called "laws" and "consumer protection", two things obviously not valued in the US as demonstrated by the current administration which is breaking the former and throwing the rest down the toilet.
As I mentioned up thread, how bad stateside reporting is with China. Trump is dangling bait in front of China: if you come to the negotiating table, I will reduce the tariffs, but not before you do. In the meantime, he put a 3500% tariff on solar panels. This at the request of the domestic solar panel industry, which has been screwed over by subsidized solar panels from China, and relabeling to get around tariffs that had already been set. The Chinese are in trouble. They don't want to come to the negotiating table and lose face, but the domestic situation in China is starting to threaten the CCP's power.