If a service cant operate in Europe what incentive is there to comply with EU regulation?

Money (which also "enables" compliance)

The context of this is considering requiring companies to pay/acquire a licence to operate in the EU; if a company isn't willing to abide the terms of the license, not operating in the EU is the whole point.

> The context of this is considering requiring companies to pay/acquire a licence to operate in the EU

And if they dont, you have to block the service.

As mentioned elsewhere, no you don't; you block the companies from being paid for providing the service. It's up to the companies to deal with it then.

In most cases the company isnt paid by the end EU user. They can still serve ads to EU users.

Say Google doesnt play ball with the EU and the EU disallows them from operating in the EU. EU user visits a search page and sees an ad. This ad comes from some company outside the EU. The EU user can access Google and Google gets paid. How do you stop the EU user from accessing Google.

>>some company outside the EU

its not relevant, what really is important is Googel/FB siphoning money away from EU companies that pay for ads.

This is the source of high valuation of ad driven US businesses: ability to siphon money from businesses around the world simply for showing an ad. Check "Google Tax" if you are familiar with this term

Stop that pipeline and big tech will comply

> In most cases the company isnt paid by the end EU user. They can still serve ads to EU users.

You still don't need to specifically block either the EU user or Google's payment for that ad view.

To continue with the example, if the EU secures judgement that Google is not stopping services & refuses to abide licensing requirements, other assets Google has within the EU's jurisdiction can be at risk.

If a tech company operates in a jurisdiction against their laws, ultimately they would have to make sure they have nothing that can be taken from them there.

>To continue with the example, if the EU secures judgement that Google is not stopping services & refuses to abide licensing requirements, other assets Google has within the EU's jurisdiction can be at risk.

But Google is already not operating within the EU in this scenario. Google says "no thanks we dont want to play by your rules" yet google.com still exists and EU users can access it. That's why you have to block it, along with anyone else that doesn't go along with the proposed forced tech transfer to a domestic company. Or you dont block it and you arent enforcing the proposed rule.

I don't think you're aware of just how much Google has at risk in the EU; it's in the billions.

They could take the hit, but that's not "we don't like a rule, so we're walking away" money.