Apple cops big French fine – are Trump’s Big Tech buddies in Euro firing line?
How will Big Tech fare under Donald Trump’s new tariff regime? We don’t know yet of course (does Trump?) but Wall Street is down over five per cent as investors have woken up to the Trump mayhem (meaning lots of companies have lost billions of dollars) and European legislators are likely to magnify the damage if EU governments unleash them in retaliation on the likes of Apple, Facebook and Google.
France’s Autorité de la Concurrence anti-trust legislator has just slapped a €150m fine on Apple for the way its App Tracking Transparency is implemented, saying it’s too complicated and therefore users won’t opt out. The full details are here.
How Trump and co respond to this and other slights is almost impossible to say: bomb the Élysée Palace or simply ban imports of French luxury goods?
Trump has a point in so far as there are various tariffs on US exports that most people aren’t aware of. But Big Tech is made up of global businesses and Europe is a huge market for anyone involved in online ads and social media. Outside Europe, China is a big problem for Apple and Tesla’s sales and supply chains. At this rate Amazon’s Jeff Bezos will be cancelling his planned wedding in Venice where he plans to take over what seems to be the entire city.
Will Trump see the light when his Big Tech bro’s gingerly point out that he’s trashing their business? Will serve all those creeps who turned up at his White house inauguration right if he doesn’t.
