EEurope

For Apple, the EU is a cash sinkhole – The world’s largest company has racked up fines, taxes and investigations in a region where it says it can’t sell its latest tech.

  • September 16, 2024



For Apple, the EU is a cash sinkhole – The world’s largest company has racked up fines, taxes and investigations in a region where it says it can’t sell its latest tech.

https://www.politico.eu/article/apple-european-union-regulation-taxes-artificial-intelligence-big-tech-digital-markets-act/

by CuteAndQuirkyNazgul

26 comments

  1. Its “latest tech” is literally the same phone with an additional button. Previously it was the same phone but with USB-C.

  2. Late stage capitalism, expecting infinite continuing growth.
    I always wondered, what if one day every single person on the planet buys your product? Will the expectation next year would be growth still? Every person buys two of the thing?

  3. Turns out it’s a bit harder to rake up billions when you have to follow regulations that protect consumers and not only your business, isn’t it?

    Also, what “latest tech”? Overhyped and underdelivering “AI”? Or the outdated Lightning connector that EU forced you to ditch and get with the times after literally everyone else already has? Or maybe the 60Hz screens on your latest iPhones? Yeah, such amazing “latest tech”.

  4. Clickbait article. I’m sure if selling Apple products in the EU was unprofitable they’d quit already. Apple is just whining that customer protections prevent them from getting as much money as they would like to.

  5. Does anybody besides Apple Lemmings really believe it’s regulations that don’t allow the introduction of new tech, and not just Apple wanting to fire up their fanboys against the DMA ? Because all other Manufacturers don’t have any difficulties with AI in Europe.

    Also you can avoid fines by complying with the law and not trying malicious compliance and not dodging taxes

  7. Well seeing that their only new selling point is AI, that realistically works only in (US) English, and connects to services usually restricted to the US, it’s not unexpected.

  8. Another “EU bad” article from Politico.

    I like how having paying taxes on your profit (thing that every working person does, with much higher rate than Apple) is now considered unreasonable form of punishment and Apple is just a poor startup with almost 400 billion in revenue that is having “very hard time” following rules in a market where they make tens of billions every year.

  9. ugh, poop dot eu again.

    If you don’t wanna pay fines, stop breaking the law you daft cunts.

    what is this? make a wish foundation? big corpo can get away with less regulation?

  11. They can leave, and hopefully, some EU owned company can develop within the framework that is needed for EU customers.

    Meta kept threatening to leave as well. They’re still here…

  12. I just read someone said EU “is not competitive due to endless regulations”. Well, If EU allowed it’s users/workforce to be milked, big tech companies would flock here for: cheap labor, unregulated industry, easy to access user data and endless monetization. But now it’s “not competitive” or “not attractive” for companies. It’s for the rich to be richer and if they can’t be richer, they whine, they squeal while waving their fists in the air.

  15. Corporate propaganda. Apple is gonna be just fine in EU, they just don’t like proconsumer regulations

  16. The EU is pretty clear about rules they are going to implement. Companies have plenty of time to anticipate and prepare. Apple just behaves like a typical US company that doesn’t want to comply and thinks they can bend or deny rules. And then starts complaining about the consequences.

  18. I love the undertones of a threat like “maybe we won’t launch our next product in the EU then”. Uhm ok? Who cares? What do they think will happen if Europeans don’t get the iPhone 17? As if that’s some crazy idea that must be avoided.

    These companies think they’re more important than they really are. Apple just makes luxury goods like Dior or LV or Rolex. They are not important to any part of normal life. The worst consequence of them pulling out is a bunch of Apple fans having to buy a Samsung phone. I think i’ll be able to sleep at night.

  19. They can leave if they want, last quarter EU was little bit over 25% of their profits, I wonder how they would fix that amount of cash flow disapearing? Do you want 2500$ Iphones? Because that’s how you get them.

  21. Then stop selling your shit here. Nobody cares. But they won’t, because they’re still making heaps of money in the EU.

  23. Lol, they’re already charging us more than the domestic market to make up for the difference. Also, there’s such a huge profit margin on Apple products that they’re practically guaranteed to make a profit.

  26. Not to interrupt the circle-jerk, but this isn’t pro-consumer regulation working as intended. Apple Intelligence seems to be completely GDPR compliant.

    Apple is withholding its Intelligence product in the EU because the DMA could force them to put user data at risk.

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