News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on EU competition chief holds threat of breaking up Google. Parent comment

Re:EU competition chief holds threat of breaking up Google by cf498 on Monday March 26, 2018 @03:58PM (#16681973)
And that place is called the US.

This didnt even work when it was simply a question of having transnational companies on the level of facebook having to pay taxes.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU competition chief holds threat of breaking up Google by kuschku on Monday March 26, 2018 @04:03PM (#16682016)
And then there’s other solutions you can do.

E.g., seizing Google’s copyrights and patents, and selling EU usage rights for them. Or seizing the physical hardware, and selling them (and the software on them) off.

There’s many many solutions here.

In the past, european governments have already seized airplanes from airlines upon landing, and threatened to auction them off, to pay a single unpaid $500 ticket return fine.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU competition chief holds threat of breaking up Google by protomyth on Monday March 26, 2018 @04:53PM (#16682487)
> E.g., seizing Google’s copyrights and patents, and selling EU usage rights for them. Or seizing the physical hardware, and selling them (and the software on them) off.

The retaliation from the US government on that one would be pretty epic. I wouldn't want to be an owner of a patent heavy European company at that point. Our current President is quite familiar with eminent domain.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU competition chief holds threat of breaking up Google by lovich on Monday March 26, 2018 @05:54PM (#16682992)
What's the trade balance with IP between the US and the EU? Whichever side is benefiting from that the most, also has the most to lose
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:EU competition chief holds threat of breaking up Google by ocdtrekkie on Monday March 26, 2018 @04:21PM (#16682174)
Actually, AFAIK Google still stashes most of it's European profits with a Caribbean island to avoid the taxes of bringing it back to the US. I know Apple's announced a plan to bring their money back in, but I don't know if Google has yet. With the current tax deal in place, they have little reason not to.
[ Parent | on HN ]