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Comment by getgoingnow | Hacker News Reader

EU bureaucrats are jealous of US internet companies. The only big internet companies come from USA and China [1].

They have very high taxes, it's very difficult to fire people and there are tons of other regulations. So, they are losing the future. That is why they are attacking Google - they want to take their money by penalties.

  [1] http://www.statista.com/statistics/277483/market-value-of-the-largest-internet-companies-worldwide/

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I'm curious, with a sweeping statement like "EU bureaucrats are jealous of US internet companies", who are you referring to? Is it EU as whole, or individuals who have a personal stake in creating EU internet companies? Because from an outside perspective, this statement seems a lot like tin foil hattery, but if you do have anything to back up your claim, I'm all ears.

Quaero is a dead giveaway. Literally.

While it's not really proof, Obama has said the same thing[0].

Obama:

> In defense of Google and Facebook, sometimes the European response here is more commercially driven than anything else. As I’ve said, there are some countries like Germany, given its history with the Stasi, that are very sensitive to these issues. But sometimes their vendors — their service providers who, you know, can’t compete with ours — are essentially trying to set up some roadblocks for our companies to operate effectively there.

[0] http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/17/8050691/obama-our-companie...

Nearly everything in the EU or Germany is commercially driven. I've didn't seen a new law that didn't screwed the people and didn't helped some businesses.

The anti-GMO laws comissioned by the E.U. are largely a front for trade protectionism from U.S. agriculture (which is mostly GMO):

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/27/opinion/trade-protectionis...

Or, perhaps, google are abusing their de-facto monopoly position and are quite rightly being investigated for it.

Investigation of anything that large is a responsible thing for a regulatory authority to do.

Losing the future of being monitored and manipulated as pawns in corporate games.

The world would continue to exist without Google, don't be scared.

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