Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Economics: The European Union Behaves Like Medieval Robber Barons


(Drivebycuriosity) - It`s hard to believe, but recently the European Union (EU) hit Amazon with a $886 million fine for an alleged data law breach ( bbc.com). The fine was issued by Luxembourg's National Commission for Data Protection, which claimed the tech giant's processing of personal data did not comply with EU law.

Holly cow. The EU behaves like medieval robber barons. They decide that Amazon has done wrong and they force Amazon to pay what ever they want, otherwise they could shut down Amazon`s business in the European Union. The medieval robber barons put swords on the throats of business travelers who traveled through their territory. The effect was the same.

The purpose of this fine is to extort lots of money from a huge international company. Big Tech has a lot money - and the EU has the power to extort that. The giant fine is also a part of the anti-business attitude of the giant administrations, who rule Europe. Europe behaves like China`s communist government which does the same with their leading tech companies - harassing them with new regulations and extorting tons of money (techtarget   wsj).

The powerful European administration decides about more and more European matters, without being democratic legitimated. This reminds of Byzantium and Kafka`s castle ("Das Schloss"). Herbert Giersch coined once the term "Eurosklerosis". The anti-business and hyper-bureaucratic stance of Europe`s administration is the cause that Europe did not develop global tech companies who could play in the same league as Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Alibaba or Microsoft.

If the byzantine and anti-business behavior continues Europe`s consumers will have to pay for this. Big Tech will have to raise prices/and or reduce their services in Europe.

 

 

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