A last-minute rule change lets European iPhone owners download apps from rival stores and developer websites, while introducing new fees that Apple hopes will satisfy regulators in Brussels.
With all respect for people who hate Apple (myself included), this doesn’t look like how penalties should work. I doubt there are adequate standards of how an entity like EU can request any percentage of global revenue from anyone. What would you do if you request any more than Apple considers adequate and decides it’s more profitable to just leave your market?
Problem is companies like to use global accounting schemes to hide/move profit.
If it was “5% of profit in the EU” then overnight Apple would suddenly make 0 profit in the EU due to “brand licensing fees” to Apple Cayman Islands Incorporated.
I mean it’s kind of classic issues with unions. It doesn’t work if only place is doing it, but the more that do, the less market they have access to. Europe is a pretty decent sized market, so it may still hurt. And if they do leave, well China certainly has a lot of their own homegrown solutions, so that’s not an entirely unreasonable option.
With all respect for people who hate Apple (myself included), this doesn’t look like how penalties should work. I doubt there are adequate standards of how an entity like EU can request any percentage of global revenue from anyone. What would you do if you request any more than Apple considers adequate and decides it’s more profitable to just leave your market?
It’s not Apple hate, it’s finding ways to penalize companies that are meaningful.
By tying the penalty to global revenues, Apple can’t simply move their revenue to somewhere else, like they did 20 years ago by going to Ireland.
See the story of Google being fined $500 million… How fast do they recoup that? Minutes or seconds?
Problem is companies like to use global accounting schemes to hide/move profit.
If it was “5% of profit in the EU” then overnight Apple would suddenly make 0 profit in the EU due to “brand licensing fees” to Apple Cayman Islands Incorporated.
Cheer?
They cannot request it from anyone, only for those who chose to operate in EU jurisdiction.
Apple is free to not operate in the EU.
And I would welcome that. Most other people will probably not though.
I mean it’s kind of classic issues with unions. It doesn’t work if only place is doing it, but the more that do, the less market they have access to. Europe is a pretty decent sized market, so it may still hurt. And if they do leave, well China certainly has a lot of their own homegrown solutions, so that’s not an entirely unreasonable option.
No “just” is the beauty
Sure, they can try, I suppose… but that’s a lotta billions and a huge % of global rev
Whoever picked that color scheme is nuts. I can barely tell which are supposed to be the Americas and Europe.
Ya it’s bad
I don’t know, I’m still waiting for you to describe the problem.
The problem is how government entities dictate media corporations what to do. This time it’s pro-consumer, the other time it might not be so.
That’s not a problem, its exactly what governments exist for. Creating and enforcing laws.
The problem us that some corporations manage to manipulate governments by bribery to avoid regulation, not that government or regulations exist.
Are you a libertarian?
Nah I’m just Russian. Our government is an example of a problem, they tried to manipulate Apple and Google, and was successful to some extent.