It was a long time coming, the French lead the way!
Apple and Google will likely pay (small) fines to the French government as a result of alleged “abusive commercial practices” against French software developers, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Local mobile phone-software developers have complained that the US companies “at times take a cut of in-app purchases and get access to more data on their users and subscribers than the developers do,” according to WSJ.
As we know, the EU is trying to crack down on what it sees as abuse of business practices by U.S. tech giants, reports The Guardian. We have seen that with Facebook on user privacy matters a couple of month ago. The case, filed in a Parisian court after a three-year investigation, asks for a two million-euro fine each from Apple and Google.
That's very small money so the larger impact will the attention brought to the issue of conduct and business practices overall, which is why I wanted to post and get comments about it.
They even have their own hashtag! #FranceTechCrackdown
Sources and more:
Photo credit:
http://www.justiceinschools.org/
Interesting news!!
By the way, did you know that the retirement pension of the french people who have worked all their active lifes has been cut down because of a new tax in favor of the "recovering" of the french economy? Some money coming from those who earn a lot would be welcome!!!
That's terrible news for those hard working people who count on their retirement to make ends meet. if i believed in the french economy's future i may have a different view. Either way it would not change the unfairness of the situation towards the ones who suffer. that said, most young people know it is a lost cause to count on a government to take care of you in the future. that s why saving and investing are key to financial sustainability.
Nice 👍🏼
We ll see what comes out of it.
I see you are new, welcome to the platform. Following you now.
Good to see the WSJ picked it up. Clearly the amounts of the fines will have little impact on AAPL and GOOG, however, as you note, the greater impact is the attention and which others will follow and pursue similar actions. Individual EU members? the EU? Asian countries? We will see. Thanks for the post @liotap.
big media outlets picking up a small law suit. your are right, WSJ, the Guardian, reuters, etc...
Unfortunately the the report was somewhat buried by Googles bank on crypto ads which was overly covered.
I think the France authorities are right, all that is unacceptable and it’s not the economy that anyone wants. I agree, Apple and Google should not be able to treat France’s startups and developers the way they are used to or the way they do at this time. At the end they either settle and stop doing this unfair process or eventually the legal action will take place in court.
I’m not surprised at all. The only question remains whether France wins the case. If they do, belive me there is going to flood of similar suits. I think they will eventually settle. Because that’s what they always do. For Apple and Google it’s unfortunately only small slap on the cheek. Did you know that American woman who was in Paris when 130 died in a terrorist attack sues Twitter, Facebook and Google over the 2015 outrage because they allegedly helped ISIS grow by giving them a social media presence? I’m aware that France was never in favor of US so I expect some kind of settlement as well.
Yes, very small money but it means a lot with respect to public opinion, potential ripple effects (as you point out) and overall reputation. I am not in favor of these law suits given the overall costs on the system, not even sure a settlement would cover the legal costs. Either way, let's see what happens.
Did not know about this issue regarding ISIS. I think that the recent measures regarding filtering content that the social media giants have put in place will play a role int heir defense.
I agree it has been a long time coming and may start a domino effect, Apple purposely slowed down older models to coerce people to buy more expensive newer models and to be honest i think this is only scratching the surface, Apple will soon have a reputation as bad as the likes of Monsanto...
Great Post @liotap. These egregious practices by Apple and Google (and likely by others) needs to be put in check and each effort by any regulatory agency is a positive.
Last time euorpen countries claim fine to google 53$ million so, google cover it from publisher our advertiser Apple its big fish so its no way more to hit fine again
I agree with you friend,
this is very good information,
should be followed up on this issue
I will always follow your post
this is very good information you provide,
I am a new user in steemit not quite understand how to use it,
but I really agree with the problem you describe
I mean French developers have the right to go against Google and Apple in my opinion.Developers should be able to have all the stuff, all the permissions and not someone on top of them having all the data.What do you personally think @liotap . Are they going to win the case?
Thank you for contributing to the Steemit Community.Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to your next posts.
hi @castbound. My take is that value in the debate and exposing large entities which goes beyond winning or losing this specific case on a legal basis. Over 90% of cases settle confidentially. Perhaps the win is that we are talking about it!
Great post, @liotap It's very important to learn about which witnesses to vote for, and sadly more people either vote at random or just vote for those who they think do a great job - without knowing exactly what they are doing for the community. We should all be better at educating ourselves about the witnesses and spread the word, if we want this blockchain to become more popular.
Hey dude! great to see you still cracking on here! sorry i have been quiet, i have been so busy with @steem-ambassador. I have messaged you in steemit chat if you have time, check it out, it is quite an opportunity!
Thanks for the up-vote, I just responded to you. be in touch.
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Great post