American Tech Firms Get Hit Hard By European Regulators
Some of the world’s largest tech companies, including several based in the Silicon Valley, are facing severe regulatory burdens in European countries.
France is examining Mountain View-based Google’s tax practices while the European Commission is hitting Cupertino-based Apple with a $14.5B back-tax bill while at the same time investigating Seattle-based Amazon’s taxes and Kindle pricing, Bloomberg reports. In addition, S.F.'s Uber and Airbnb are battling labor protections in Spain, Germany, France and Hungary.
Facebook is under fire too, with German antitrust regulators investigating to what extent the firm’s terms of service unfairly invade users’ privacy. All these regulatory measures hit this year and aren’t likely to be played out until next. [Bloomberg]
