EU Says It Will Enforce Digital Rules Irrespective of CEO and Location (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0177077593
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/04/21/1910242/eu-says-it-will-enforce-digital-rules-irrespective-of-ceo-and-location
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/eu-says-it-will-enforce-digital-rules-irrespective-ceo-location-2025-04-21/
> "That's why we've opened cases against TikTok, X, Apple, Meta just to name a few. We apply the rules fairly, proportionally, and without bias. We don't care where a company's from and who's running it. We care about protecting people," Politico quoted von der Leyen as saying on Sunday. The EU's Digital Markets Act has been strongly criticised by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/eu-says-it-will-enforce-digital-rules-irrespective-ceo-location-2025-04-21/
How? (Score:2)
If a company has no presence in a market, how can they do anything about it?
And does this apply to Russian, NKorean etc hackers?
Re: (Score:3)
AFAIK, if a company has no presence in the EU, and provides no services within the EU, then the act would not apply.
Out of curiosity, which major company or companies did you have in mind? I can't think of any that don't operate in some manner within the EU. (It's a big market!)
Also AFAIK, the act only applies to those within the EU. The big companies can continue to screw users and businesses outside the EU to their heart's content! Unless, of course, those counties (like the UK) have similar or equiva
Bullshit (Score:1, Troll)
"We want to police all speech in the entire world" - hmm, who does that sound like. I feel like some books have been written about that. They also have laws saying you can't say anything bad about immigrants no matter how many times they rape your kids, throw acid in your face, or stab you while saying publicly that they hate you for your skin color, religion, and money. Hmmmm, that does sound familiar.
Re: (Score:2)
The vast majority of rape gangs [1]in England are white [bbc.co.uk].
The vast majority of stabbing perpetrators [2]are also white [ons.gov.uk]. (Table 32 of the spreadsheet)
As to your comment about sounding familiar, yes, it does. It sounds exactly like what a large portion of white people have been saying for centuries.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65174096
[2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/appendixtableshomicideinenglandandwales
Re: (Score:3)
Statistics fail. Similarly, the vast majority of people committing the Base Rate Fallacy are right-handed. [1]https://xkcd.com/2476/ [xkcd.com]
[1] https://xkcd.com/2476/
Re: (Score:3)
> They also have laws saying you can't say anything bad about immigrants no matter how many times they rape your kids, throw acid in your face, or stab you
Because Europe saw what happens when stoking racial tensions spirals out of control. One can criticize individuals without fingering that they belong to an allegedly "bad group".
Re: (Score:2)
What makes them "American"? They registered as corporation here? Many of these so-called "American" companies have the bulk of their employees, their production, their customers and even their stockholders in other countries. They aren't "American", they are multi-national. They use phony appeals to patriotism to get us to pay to defend their interests.
Apple has its headquarters here. But almost all its phones are produced in China where it also maintains research and design facilities. The only activities
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Exactly. On a related note [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple's_EU_tax_dispute
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Completely incorrect about Apple. The R&D facilities that Apple maintains in China are about manufacturing and tackling problems specific to those manufacturing lines. Almost all the actual R&D - hardware, firmware, software are outside China with the bulk in the US but also spread around the planet depending on what company Apple purchased as they tend to leave the team intact and in place in many cases.
Exporting censorship (Score:1)
EU does not get to impose its laws outside of EU. If they don't like how Internet works, feel free to leave and start your own, like Chinese did.
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US companies do not get to impose or ignore laws outside of US. If they don’t like how internal commerce works in multiple jurisdictions, they are free to leave and restrict themselves to their domestic market. Apple and X take payments and deliver services to EU customers. They need to comply with local taxation and regulation, or leave the market and forego the revenue.
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* international commerce
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America does it all he time.
Try being a U.S. citizen, Having not so much as set foot in the U.S. for 20 years, earning money in any other country, and not expect to be subject to U.S. income tax.
Regionalization is the internets future... (Score:2)
Certain types of apps will end up being regionalized behind new "great firewalls", particularly those which deal with news, anything social media, allow comments, etc. Think of a European TikTok, A U.S. TikTok, a Chinese TikTok, etc., which completely different content inside each region, some subject to heavy state censorship, some lighter or more targeted and some remaining uncensored.
A ringing endorsement! (Score:2)
> The EU's Digital Markets Act has been strongly criticised by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
When der Trumpenfuhrer is against it, you know it's the sane, moral, anti-authoritarian thing to do!
Well, that's sad. (Score:4, Interesting)
Not sad that they said it, but sad that we live in an age where that's something that *needs* to be said. Shouldn't that just be the way things are?
Re:Well, that's sad. (Score:5, Insightful)
No. It's just enforcing EU regulation IN EUROPE - even though the company may be US-owned.
It's not like US-owned companies are allowed to NOT follow the laws of the country the operate in.
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" if you dont treat US better than others, we will send JD Vance for a visit."
Indeed, he visited the Pope and now he's dead.
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The worst Digital Markets app situation is literally Spotify, an EU-based app that absolutely is being ignored by the commission.
They have absolutely and clearly targets American companies and while I was born in America, I left 25 years ago and have only worked for highly APAC-centric companies that in general don't do business with the EU, because we don't think there's enough profit to the amount of trouble.
Re: (Score:3)
> Good luck getting smaller companies to agree to that.
If the smaller company wants EU customers, there are always the financial levers to pull.. Basically fines can always be collected if you get revenue from the jurisdiction in qustion.
If they do not want customers from there, then yes, a lot less levers.
Re: Well, that's sad. (Score:5, Informative)
I think people are ignoring what's going on.
Facebook (most especially) but apple, and others have been essentially saying:
Well, our HQ is not in the EU and while the servers are in the EU and we serve EU customers, because the HQ is in the US (and/or the leadership is in the US), they are NOT subject to the rules/stipulations that the EU has put forth for firms servicing EU citizens.
Which is almost the same as when the US tries to claim sovereignty for any data that's being accessed by US citizens (regardless of point of origin).
If anything, this is very much tit for tat.. (if the US can claim they have rights to data housed in the EU because US citizens/business accessed it).. then the EU certainly has the right to say "well, then you must comply with our rules regardless of where your HQ/Leadership is if its available and servicing EU customers"
Its essentially the same thing.. either both parties need hands off their respective data when not in their territories.. OR it all applies and businesses/customers must comply with both issues.
Re: (Score:2)
There are big differences with the US.
* 2012: the US branch of HSBC gets a huge fine because the Mexico branch got apparently dirty money from the cartels. Not that I support the cartels, but the point is that it is a different branch in a different country doing business legally according to local laws.
* 2019: BNP Paribas (a French bank) gets a huge fine because they did business with Iran (under US sanctions). The formal reason is because the transaction went "to or through U.S. financial institutions". W
Re: (Score:3)
> People made a big fuss about the USA trying to enforce its laws outside its jurisdiction. How come its somehow ok for the EU to do the same? If the company is based outside the Eu and so are the servers I dont legally see how this can work unless theres a rule saying that EU citizen data can only be stored on servers in the EU. Good luck getting smaller companies to agree to that.
There's so much confusion to untangle here but this is the original article: [1]https://www.politico.eu/articl... [politico.eu]
[1] https://www.politico.eu/article/european-commission-ursula-von-der-leyen-warns-x-meta-tiktok-rules-ceo/
Re: Well, that's sad. (Score:3, Informative)
SAP, Seimens, Airbus, Spotify off the top of my head.
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Those don't run social networks.
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Hell, no. As Charlie Stross wrote, "author writes 'Don't Build the Torment Nexus', and the techbros are all "Hey, we're building the torment nexus!!!"
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> Not sad that they said it, but sad that we live in an age where that's something that *needs* to be said. Shouldn't that just be the way things are?
That'd be like if the Disney World theme parks had a different set of rules they had to abide by for guests from the EU. We usually don't do anything like this, for normal citizens at least. If you patronize a business located outside of your borders, you're subject to how things are done in that country, for better or worse. The idea that the "visiting" takes place via an internet connection really shouldn't change things.
Otherwise you get the situation, which has been pointed out many times before, whe
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So you say a company has to abide the rule of the law, where it does business. I wonder what selling ads is in your world, presents for guests? No, well then those businesses better abide the law, no?
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Not sure about the others, but Apple and X both take payments from EU customers and deliver services, subscriptions and products to EU customers. So it is more like if Disney World provided children’s birthday parties with clowns and magicians to local EU residences. They need to either comply with local laws, or stop taking payments and providing services to those customers.
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I am pretty sure Eurodisney just ouside Paris has to obey french laws.
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>> Not sad that they said it, but sad that we live in an age where that's something that *needs* to be said. Shouldn't that just be the way things are?
> That'd be like if the Disney World theme parks had a different set of rules they had to abide by for guests from the EU.
No, that's be like if Disney opened a theme park in the EU (where the Facebook servers are for the EU visitors) and had to abide by the EU rules. Oh wait, they already do!
> Otherwise you get the situation, which has been pointed out many times before, where (for example) some homophobic shithole country in the middle east is telling a California gay porn site that they have to shut down or face the consequences.
No, the country would just block that website. Oh wait, they already do!
And yes, that's what Facebook doesn't want: to get blocked in the EU. Just like TikTok doesn't want to get blocked in the US.
"Nagotiation" (Score:1)
TribbleHead made it a public issue. Usually leaders gripe about unfair treatment behind closed doors to avoid embarrassing both sides, and only make it public when progress stalls. TribbleHead does it backward.