Spotify et al have a point. But it’s also unclear what any regulator can do to bring them into compliance. When Apple could literally buy outright any country that tried, they’re pretty much outside the law.
I don’t think this is true. Apple is trying to maliciously comply with the DMA, and given that the EU has the spirit of the law-concept, I’m fairly convinced that they are going to get to eat a massive fine for this.
Or at least I hope so. I’d love to see them eat the maximum fine of 10% of global revenues, just to make sure that any clown companies never attempt this shit again.
When Apple (and Microsoft, Google, and Amazon) are sitting on several trillion dollars, any country in the world would be hesitant to take them on. If they injected just 10% of their value, it would destabilize entire economies.
American corpo-propaganda. Apple doesn’t have land, doesn’t have guns, doesn’t have workers ready to die in combat. Their wealth is in IP, contracts, and (unusually) cash/stocks.
The FTC could order a raid on their offices tomorrow, freeze their corporate accounts, and breakup the company into four smaller companies (say Apple Silicon, Apple Mobile, Apple Desktop, Apple Software). And there’s jack-shit Apple would do in retaliation. In fact, this used to be a semi-common antitrust strategy until Reagan came about.
The only thing truly preventing state intervention is neoliberal/libertarian/corporations-as-people ideology. That’s the real enemy that turns politicians impotent and complacent. But it’s a made-up, self-inflicted weakness.
That’s why we have the EU. It’s not one country, it’s 27, with one sixth of the global economy (26 trillion). That’s far larger than even the largest companies.
Spotify et al have a point. But it’s also unclear what any regulator can do to bring them into compliance. When Apple could literally buy outright any country that tried, they’re pretty much outside the law.
I don’t think this is true. Apple is trying to maliciously comply with the DMA, and given that the EU has the spirit of the law-concept, I’m fairly convinced that they are going to get to eat a massive fine for this.
Or at least I hope so. I’d love to see them eat the maximum fine of 10% of global revenues, just to make sure that any clown companies never attempt this shit again.
When Apple (and Microsoft, Google, and Amazon) are sitting on several trillion dollars, any country in the world would be hesitant to take them on. If they injected just 10% of their value, it would destabilize entire economies.
Which is why we have the union of European countries taking them on as a group.
It’s far from impossible to go against these big companies despite their size.
American corpo-propaganda. Apple doesn’t have land, doesn’t have guns, doesn’t have workers ready to die in combat. Their wealth is in IP, contracts, and (unusually) cash/stocks.
The FTC could order a raid on their offices tomorrow, freeze their corporate accounts, and breakup the company into four smaller companies (say Apple Silicon, Apple Mobile, Apple Desktop, Apple Software). And there’s jack-shit Apple would do in retaliation. In fact, this used to be a semi-common antitrust strategy until Reagan came about.
The only thing truly preventing state intervention is neoliberal/libertarian/corporations-as-people ideology. That’s the real enemy that turns politicians impotent and complacent. But it’s a made-up, self-inflicted weakness.
That’s why we have the EU. It’s not one country, it’s 27, with one sixth of the global economy (26 trillion). That’s far larger than even the largest companies.