this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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Apple has an annual legal budget of approximately infinity dollars. I assure you they are aware of this and they believe they are in compliance, even if just barely.
If challenged, they will have no problem fighting it — they have nearly as much cash on hand as the entire EU budget.
I hope the EU challenges this, and I hope the EU wins, but Apple isn’t going to be surprised by whatever happens.
The fine would be approximately 10% of Apple's total revenue and the fine increases by 10% every violoation so I doubt that Apple can not accept the regulations.
Unfortunately, Apple has the resources, both legal and financial, to tie that up in the EU courts for decades.
We'll see what happens
What if I told you one of those two can make new laws?
In one afternoon the Commission+Parliament can change the basis of whatever case Apple wants to fight. And they are up against Vestager - she makes multinational software companies bend the knee twice before lunch.
You're underestimating what EU can get gone when they're motivated to get it done.
Apple has also been known to ignore laws and pay fines for breaking them. The store is a major revenue stream so they might just do that.
Yup. If the only penalty is a fine, and that fine doesn’t scale to the business’ profits? A profitable enough business could simply factor in the fines as a cost of doing business.
Imagine you could make $1000 and only get fined $200 after the fact. No extra penalties. Just a flat $200 fine for every time you violate it. So as long as you expect to be able to top that $200 fine, a business will elect to just pay the fine and continue doing the illegal thing.
The regulator has the power to ban sales, so I don't think that particular "cost of doing business" line applies to this dispute.
There's the letter and there's the spirit of the law. Even if Apple has found a brilliant loophole the courts can just say well it's technically true but you're still breaking the law nonetheless, lawyer budget be damned.
The EU court is a Roman court, not an Anglo Saxon court. The spirit of the law is what matters, not the technicalities.
Second, the EU can change the laws that create the outcome they don’t like. By the people, for the people. Apple will play within the EU’s rules or Apple won’t play in the EU.
I sure do love how global justice comes down to which party has more money to piss away rather than what's right or wrong.
Yup. I'm just gonna sip this coffee while it all burns down.
They will get free publicity and show the users how they stand up to the overreaching government. Their users will eat it up.