Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> If everyone is breaking the law then no one is

In the EU, if everyone is breaking the law then the foreign tech companies are.




To be fair that’s pretty much the doj enforcement strategy too. Except you don’t even have to serve American customers to be targeted there.


Feel free to point out actual instances, or even better, trends backing up that statement.


See lawsuits against Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and other large tech companies going back the last 20-30 years. This is the type of basic fact that doesn't need a citation in a discussion about GDPR.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/13/technology/ho...


I don't believe this is a fair characterization.

In e.g. Belgium, privacy law is very strict and enforced for local corporation. When I read on hacker news how e.g. USA Healthcare providers dig up the old history of their clients to find a reason not to pay, I am horrified. Any West-European privacy regulator would have ended that kind of behavior long before things got this far. Probably just sending a strong 'We dont like this' message without actually starting a lawsuit would do the job.

Don't forget how history hammered into the population how people died and suffered because powerful groups managed to built lists of facts. Think WWII and the jews. Or the Napoleonitic conscription lists.

So if people with this background get confronted with the American Way, they don't like this. Here is a wrong that should be righted is the opinion.

For now, there are no lawsuits I am aware of. If both the large tech companies and the USA government behave reasonably well, I don't expect a big one either. The governmental regulators are simply not ready for them yet, as the GDPR had a big impact on them as well. And they never like having to pay for a drawn-out legal battle.


Maybe they mostly go after American companies because mostly American companies are in violation?

And it's not as if EU companies go without scrutiny. Due to the still-fractured market, most are small enough so their antitrust matters are localized to one country, but if you check the EU website there are still plenty of cases, they're just not sexy enough to make the news - like the a recent case "Commission fines maritime car carriers and car parts suppliers a total of €546 million".

In for instance the "state aid" tax preference cases cited in your link, the EU has also launched investivations into European companies like IKEA and Fiat cars.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: