Hacker News Reader

Comment by Zenst | Hacker News Reader

I can't help but feel that fines by countries of big corps is just so routine that it's probably part of the budget. Sure we see fines, but what happens to the money from the fines! Do they go to the users impacted - nope. Do changes happen as a result - slowly if at all. It's all kinda like some form of taxation upon the user/people as we all know any large fine upon a corporation - who ends up paying for it...the users/people..again.

View on HN

> that fines by countries of big corps is just so routine

You get a fine contingent on not following the law, so... just follow the law? Fines need to be big for big corporations if they are to pose a risk worth avoiding.

> Do they go to the users impacted - nope.

As with any fine, it goes to government, which means that same expenditure requires less taxes. So it gets shared among all french population. Which is a good proxy for “users impacted by google cookies in France”.

> Do changes happen as a result - slowly if at all.

So if 2 companies are fined for not complying with a law, the problem is that the law is overly punishing / fining does not work? It would seem the other way, that the fine risk was not big enough!

> who ends up paying for it...the users/people..again.

Which are also the ones that receive the money, through their government.

Right, I feel this is just a new source of income for governments. They seem to be too keen on handing out fines in those areas where it‘s simple to do so, but fail to act in other areas where the consumer is constantly being hurt e.g. right to repair, warranty laws, right to return digital products.

> fail to act in other areas where the consumer is constantly being hurt e.g. right to repair, warranty laws, right to return digital products.

This is the EU we’re talking about. It’s a bit weak on right to repair at the moment. But on warranties and digital product returns, we have some pretty strong and effective protections.

That’s not true, you don’t have the right to return digital products at the moment (discs, software, video games etc). For warranties, there are a lot of problems consumers face that don’t get talked about, but I won’t get into detail here.

Dieselgate is another area where where the EU completely has completely ignored when it comes to fines, outside a single town in Germany.

That's how it works and it works well: let's be fair, the law is not always 100% clear. Some companies try to find the line, have the budget for it, and find it when they get slapped. The goal is not to kill the infringing company, it is to force them to adapt their business models.

In France, as we see here in the difference in fines between Amazon and Google, the fines are not a flat rate: repeated offenses lead to harsher sentences.

Normally, they should be allowed to rectify the problems without getting a fine. But if you do that you don’t get the free money. It looks like the tech companies are just being treated as cash cows by governments.

Staying within the law is pretty easy. The fine is for people who want to play the game of "where exactly is the line?"

It literally is. Check out Google’s quarterly earnings reports, they have a line item for “European Commission fines” under “Accrued expenses and other current liabilities”.

[1] https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/20201030_alphabet_10Q.pd...

Reporting an expense in your earnings report is not the same as having it as a line item in your budget.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com