Google just got hit by yet another record antitrust fine by the EU [1]. But as long as they see these fines as cost of doing business, nothing will change. Especially if it always takes almost a decade to push this through the judicial system. Their net income last year alone was $130 Billion.
You're splitting hairs in this case, while that's unquestionably true, it's irrelevant if there tariffs are only set on one party.
That's why Trump's tariffs on everything was so ... Uh ... "Interesting". If only one party gets the tariffs, you end up with other parties selling the goods instead, which does cause meaningful damage to the tariffed party
Or the tariffing party just continues buying very nearly the same amount of things at higher prices in many categories because those items don’t have perfectly elastic supply and demand.
That’s actually kind of like not a good statistic though.
For 30% of transactions with the EU it’s just the US shooting itself in the foot and passing on higher costs to average Americans.
Imagine enacting a tax where 30% of the money collected was a net negative. I can’t think of many taxes that are that poorly constructed.
For the 70% of transactions where US companies and individuals decide to buy less or use alternative sources, doesn’t that at some point harm US businesses? At the very least you’re now artificially lowering competition, which tends to drive overall prices up and quality down.
Something like, "I'm worried about impairing Google's ability to compete in AI" or some nonsense. (Paraphrasing here.)
Looks like all it takes to compete in AI is to issue stock or get a bunch of investors. I don't see how Google would struggle with that. It's completely orthogonal to antitrust enforcement.
Actually, the EU should very much crack down on any foreign company that abuses its market position to stifle local business competition. There's no good reason to allow them to break local laws and diminish the local economy just because they keep their headquarters outside the EU.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/eu-top-court-dismisses-google-...