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posted by mrpg on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the much-ado-about-nothing dept.

A month after the enforcement date of the General Data Protection Regulation – a law that businesses had two years to prepare for – many websites are still locking out users in the European Union as a method of compliance.

[...] Another retailer that failed to get its house in order is posh homeware store Pottery Barn, whose notice says that "due to technical challenges caused by new regulations in Europe" it can't accept orders from the EU.

"The pace of global regulations is hard to predict," the shop complains about the legislation, which was adopted on 14 April 2016. "But we have the ultimate goal of being able to offer our products everywhere."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:33AM (20 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:33AM (#698545)

    Why an American company should give a fuck about something cooked up in Brussels?

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:41AM (12 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:41AM (#698551) Journal

    Why an American company should give a fuck about something cooked up in Brussels?

    They don't need to.
    But if they choose not to give a fuck, expect them to be banned in doing business in the European space.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:59AM (11 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:59AM (#698562)

      I'm unsure of who that would hurt more. Isn't this going to basically end up as a Great Firewall of Europe? There's nothing to stop US companies from advertising, selling or collecting data, or anything else. European companies will still want those services if they can get them, but now they're gonna have to pay extra to cover the Executive Bond Fund. The physical presence stuff is laughable. Networks connect, so fuck going to the EU when I can mine your data from outside the jurisdiction. Try seizing a US company's assets that doesn't have them where you can grab them. How are you gonna stop Google from doing business as usual when they can pull out and stop supporting EU android phones, search service, news, and all the other stuff. I can flash a ROM on most Android phones without too much trouble, can your parents or grandparents? When the App Store is replaced with the botnet store, who wins?

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:08AM (5 children)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:08AM (#698570) Journal

        Isn't this going to basically end up as a Great Firewall of Europe?

        And? Show me the damage.

        Give me an analogy.
        Is it like those protectionist taxes your president puts on the trade "for national security reasons"? Or those "Ban Huawei from competing in 5G technology on US soil"?
        Isn't POTUS in his rights to raise them?
        Isn't Europe in their rights to ask for a better protection of privacy for european citizens than what the american companies offer? The europeans seems to value private/personal data as much as the US value "trade secrets" - what's wrong with that?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @09:48AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @09:48AM (#698673)

          Isn't Europe in their rights to ask for a better protection of privacy for european citizens than what the american companies offer?

          Europe is not the EU and EU legislation is proposed by the commission, not the people or their duly elected representatives.

          • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:52AM

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:52AM (#698685) Journal

            Their elected representatives can actually refuse to ratify or adopt the law into their respective countries if they feel is contrary to the interest of the people they represent.
            Has happened for the case of ACTA [wikipedia.org]

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 2) by quietus on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:56PM

            by quietus (6328) on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:56PM (#698914) Journal

            The Commission merely draws up proposals for EU legislation. The Council of Ministers (the Council of the European Union) as well as the European Parliament have to vote on those proposals before they can come into 'law'. Both bodies consist of elected representatives.

            In practice it's a bit more complicated. The initiative for EU legislation typically originates in the Council of the European Union, which gives the order to the Commission to (a) provide technical expertise and/or (b) translate their initiative into legislative proposal. The Parliament then typically modifies this legislative proposal through amendments, in negotiation with the Commission.

            The Commission itself can (and does) provide proposals of her own -- the recent GDPR legislation [iapp.org] is a case in point, for instance -- but these still have to go through the same back-and-forth with both the Council and the Parliament (which, again, consists of directly elected representatives).

            The linky gives you a bit of an impression of this negotiating process (start at 25 January 2012).

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @01:31PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @01:31PM (#698739)

          Europe can do whatever it wants. Just as any other entity can. Just dont expect those outside Europe to care. Just as other entities dont.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Tuesday June 26 2018, @07:24PM

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @07:24PM (#698927) Journal

            As this article summary demonstrates, they don't need to care unless they want to do business there.

            --
            Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:41AM (2 children)

        by Mykl (1112) on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:41AM (#698586)

        How are you gonna stop Google from doing business as usual when they can pull out and stop supporting EU android phones, search service, news, and all the other stuff.

        Google are free to pull out of the European market if they want to and to block their services from that region. They'll hand their market share over to another company that is prepared to play by the EU rules.

        BUT, if they stay, they have to play by the rules too. How does Europe ensure that it does this? By arresting Sergey/Larry when they go on their next holiday in Ibiza, or attend the Cannes Film Festival, or go to a friend's chalet in Switzerland, etc. The 1% enjoy travel too much to give a bloc as large as the EU a big FU.

        • (Score: 1) by oldmac31310 on Tuesday June 26 2018, @08:04PM (1 child)

          by oldmac31310 (4521) on Tuesday June 26 2018, @08:04PM (#698943)

          Switzerland? Not a good example. Not an EU member!

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @07:29AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @07:29AM (#699711)

            Switzerland? Not a good example. Not an EU member!

            Neither was or is Bolivia:
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident [wikipedia.org]

            the Dassault Falcon 900 aircraft carrying him back to Bolivia from Russia took off from Vnukovo Airport, but was rerouted to Austria when France, Spain, and Italy reportedly denied access to their airspace

            It's a bit more difficult to fly into Switzerland if you need to avoid EU airspace.

            And even if you can bet on them not wanting you that badly, sometimes planes need to land somewhere else than their planned destination. Then it's "Nice of you to drop in, we've a cell waiting for you" time if you're on their arrest list.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @04:00AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @04:00AM (#698593)

        "How are you gonna stop Google from doing business as usual when they can pull out and stop supporting EU android phones, search service, news, and all the other stuff."

        I doubt they will. But just imagine all the now local opportunities for services that respect customer/user rights that can spring up in the EU once google and the like take their ball and go home all because they can't abuse the population anymore.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @07:32AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @07:32AM (#699712)
          International opportunities too... Even some US folk might prefer an EU company/organization spying on them if it makes it harder for the US Gov to spy on them.
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @04:03AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @04:03AM (#698595) Journal

    Why an American company should give a fuck about something cooked up in Brussels?

    The EU government doesn't care. It'll create an implicit protectionist barrier to the outside world. That's fine with them.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:44AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:44AM (#698622)

    Well, USA certainly went after Napster... in a foreign country, for not obeying the USA's wishlist!

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:31PM (#698771)

      The EU is weak sauce. The US runs the world.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by pvanhoof on Tuesday June 26 2018, @08:57AM (3 children)

    by pvanhoof (4638) on Tuesday June 26 2018, @08:57AM (#698665) Homepage

    Why should Brussels give a fuck about American companies that are not giving a fuck about EU laws?

    You want to do business in the EU? You're on our soil. Our land. Our laws. Not yours. If you disrespect that: get the fuck out, fucking American.

    ps. And I can assure you that now that your POTUS is calling for a trade war with the EU, we mean business when we say that. Some of your American companies actually will get kicked out.

    Remember. Our laws. Not yours. Our land. Not yours.

    Disclaimer: I'm a EU citizen.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @09:40AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @09:40AM (#698671)

      your POTUS is calling for a trade war with the EU, we mean business when we say that. Some of your American companies actually will get kicked out.

      He's seeking redress for a trade imbalance. Why don't you try correcting the imbalance Germany exploits via the Eurozone to export goods with the benefits of an undervalued currency?

      • (Score: 5, Touché) by pvanhoof on Tuesday June 26 2018, @09:49AM (1 child)

        by pvanhoof (4638) on Tuesday June 26 2018, @09:49AM (#698674) Homepage

        How we deal with our currency is also our problem. In fact, the ECB's. Not the US's, not the FED. The US doesn't have to buy our Euros. You can also dump them (like many oil producing countries are planning or want to do with US dollars). You don't have to buy our European goods and services. That trade balance, if it actually exists (because that Trump clown saying so, doesn't make it true. The numbers are saying something completely different) is something the US created all by itself by exporting labor and importing cheap Chinese piece of shit goods.

        Spend less on wars and more on your economy, education, infrastructure, equality, social security.

        Not our fault that the US basically fucked itself up as an empire. Maybe get rid of that deep state shit, make it stop lying to the world and stop feeling so goddamn special. The US is not exceptional.

        Put differently. Let's get it on, with that trade war.