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Comment by paganel | Hacker News Reader

The law should come hard on this sort of shenanigans, but hitting on Big Tech has already become a political issue in the US, Europe is, in the end, too afraid to do it (bar some relatively minor extra taxes that Big Tech is all to happy to pay as long as it's not made legally liable in other ways), and here we are, with crazy stories like this one (one of many).

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> Europe is, in the end, too afraid to do it

Hmm, I feel this is opposite of what people normally complain about here. Every time EU does something about big tech, HN users will pop up saying it's just because they're jealous and wants to harass US companies. And other's saying the US are just afraid of hurting their own companies and look the other way so they can grow big.

> Europe is, in the end, too afraid to do it

Take a look at the Digital Markets and Digital Services Acts on top of the already active GDPR.

Well, the GDPR isn't there to fine companies for doing the wrong thing. A company's first violation rarely results in fines or disciplinary action. In any case, I do agree that the EU seems to move quicker and act stricter than other regions in regulating big tech companies.

Of course, the point of the legislation (any legislation for that matter) is for things to be improved, not to top up the budget by catching infractions. A warning on first offense is a good principle to adapt (of course baring murder and the like)

>Europe is, in the end, too afraid to do it (bar some relatively minor extra taxes that Big Tech is all to happy to pay as long as it's not made legally liable in other ways),

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitrust_cases_against_Goog...

$8 billion afraid. If you consider that 'minor', i rather suspect you are being anti-EU just for the hell of it.

If a small butcher-shop round the corner sells the wrong type of meat the authorities first close his shop and then apply the fine, or close the shop and apply the fine at the same time, thing is butcher shop is getting closed no matter what until the issue is resolved. As such, yeah, 8 billion euros/dollars is just the cost of doing business as long as the Google "shop" (or any other FAANG shop) is not closed until the issue is resolved.

Back to this, had any political authority (the EU/US, doesn't matter) applied the same principle in here, i.e. "we won't allow you to sell any cloud-related services anymore until you don't have proper customer service" let's say, I can assure you that would have done a lot more to alleviate problems like this one.

> we won't allow you to sell any cloud-related services anymore until you don't have proper customer service

Yeah, and shut down everything that everyone has running on Google's servers on the process. Killing millions of small to large businesses in the process. That does make sense. The way to enforce food regulations is to shut down the food stores even at the cost of leaving people hungry.

"Wrong type of meat", or unhealthy meat. I think your argument would depend on the distinction (as much as "the authorities" ie working on a local level, vs "The EU", working on a National, and Continental level).

The law can only come if people sue

And yes I think people should engage lawyers in cases like this. Even in small cases court if it's the case

> The law can only come if people sue

That's not true in the long run. Legislators can make arbitrary laws that ban or prescribe arbitrary things.

See eg how there are special laws in Spain and Australia that (try to) force specific behaviour from Google News. Behaviour that you can't override with a contract.

Europe is too afraid to do it? Like how it was afraid to roll out the browser ballot and fine Microsoft ~500,000 a day or something until they implemented it? Like how they were afraid to roll out GDPR? Or like how they were afraid to roll out the digital gatekeepers act just recently?

Counterpoint: GDPR

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