Join the discussion
Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.
- Hacker News
- Oh geez, GDPR again. Does this mean I'll have to close out a popup every time I open Google Maps or do a search?by scottyah
- They need to multiply by 100 to move that fine out of “cost of doing business” range.by tempodox
- it's depressing how small google's / meta's fines are. should be a % of revenue or total stock valuation or something.
- The EU seems to live in a world all on its own. They can’t fine enough to actually change the behavior of big companies, but they can fine enough to kill their own startup culture.
I don’t feel bad for them anymore. Their voters seem to be fine with this status quo. And I get why other countries see these fines as trying to raise taxes by other means because it hasn’t and won’t change anything.
by fintechjock - Do they only fine American companies in Europe?by noworld
- Someone recently fined Facebook $17 Billion. It was on the front page of NYT for 6 days (like as if it was a huge "get").
About 1% of FB's market cap. And their sins get washed away.
Everybody wins.
At this rate, fining tech-cos will be a major source of revenue for governments. Everybody wins.
- for perspective, €403M = ~30 hours of net income, or ~10 hours of revenue (based on 2025 numbers, current exchange rates).