urahara

zebratrain said:

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.

Do you mean that EU wants to steal from Apple which feeds EU?

techrider said:

So an election is won by the most popular messaging, not by the best ideas on how to make the school better for the student body. iPad is powerful - love mine, but this cute ad feels like it condones the very form of politics that is eroding society.

It has always been that way. Best ideas do not win, but most popular do. 

Screen with oversized Touch Bar. Nope. Thank you. 

sdw2001 said:

techconc said:

DAalseth said:

Maybe Apple has decided that €50 million is just the cost of doing business. 

Yeah, just to do a little perspective on this.  Using the back of the napkin math...   Apple made $34.6 Billion USD profit last quarter.  Convert to Euros, that's 30.6+ Billion Euros.  Divide by 90 (days in the quarter) and that's 340+ million Euros profit per day or roughly 14+ million Euros per hour they make in profit.  So, the maximum fine represents the profit Apple makes in about 3 hours.  I suspect they can't be bothered by such nonsense.  

Exactly.  I'll go even further...I don't see anywhere that Apple has actually paid any of the fines.  What will the Netherlands do about it? Send it to collections?  Put people in jail? I hope Apple really is ignoring them.  In fact, I think they should threaten to pull out of the country completely.  Apple is currently worth 50% more than that country's entire economy (1.6 Trillion to $1 Trillion).  Let that sink in.  

How would Apple’s valuation change if Apple starts pulling its business from multiple countries where it has some legal ‘discussion’?
Let that sink in. 

AppleInsider said:

...
However, Apple said it still intends to charge a 27% commission on in-app purchases using third-party payment methods -- only slightly lower than the company's standard 30% cut. The Dutch regulator rejected Apple's moves, claiming that it still places an unreasonable burden on developers and does not mark compliance.
...

What would a reasonable burden be which also marks compliance? 
Hypocrites. My almost 50% of taxes (Germany) is a burden! 
Let the free market to create efficiencies! Government only slows the innovations.

I wish Apple had in their T&C the paragraph allowing them to stop providing the service to the company/developer who is involved in a legal battle. "If you are unhappy with the Apple's service, stop using it while you are 'negotiating' the new terms".