zebratrain

Cool. The pressure is on. Maybe apple will now contemplate paying its fair share in taxes to European countries it operates in to make this bill more palatable. When you steal from the hand that feeds you time after time again something like this was inevitable and it makes perfect sense that google and amazon are next.

Bosa said:

I can find 100 people in a week who will happily work for Apple retail  and won’t unionize. 

Indeed but that means u will fire the 100 that wanted a union. Tough luck on that, firing on the grounds of unionising is illegal and punishable. However you could be naughty and fire them on other grounds or get them to quit - if you have no ethical qualms

The bigger picture is that hyperinflation is probably on its way boys and girls

revenant said:

what if people wanted a different government? they are stuck with the EU, the EU has a monopoly of power in Europe. 

No wrong. Governments in EU are democratic institutions. Apple is a for profit company. As we all know companies at this scale are run with logistics and methodologies derived from army operations. A company such as apple is so far removed from the democratic process that actual governments have to put them back in line when they falter and have anti-social behaviour.

The bottom line is that apple does NOT pay its fair share in taxes. It finds loopholes to pay less to the detriment of the social systems that produced the wealth necessary to buy their products. I say let them win their argument and use it against them to make them pay their fare share.

The 30% cut apple gets from each sale in it’s app store is fair as it is their ecosystem that allows the app’s to sell, their investments which are made at their own risk and their hard work that is paying of.

Similarly when you sell anything in a country, any country, it is that country’s ecosystem that allows you to do so, their investments into society, infrastructure, education etc., their risks that are involved as in any undertaking and the society’s hard work in order to be able to attract the likes of apple as a seller of goods and services. Thus it is similarly fair for apple to pay a set percentage income tax and other taxes which are the same for everyone. We all know this not to be the case as apple etc find ways to pay way less and certainly not in the country where their income originated from.

The difference is ideological. Many countries are democratic (see EU and US) and allow discourse on what should be a fair amount apple should pay or where they should pay it. Apple on the other hand has no such sensitivities and allows for no room to haggle as apple itself so often does especially when large sums of money are involved.

This is by design and as it should be. However we should have a clear view of what is what and the fact that it is up to governments to be similarly fair to apple as it is being to its partners.

In regards to your article yes it is a matter of security for apple not to allow third party app store and it goes without saying that a country cannot force percentages and profit margins on any company unless it is on basic goods and for humanitarian reasons which most definitely is not the case here.