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."
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:41AM (2 children)
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)
Switzerland? Not a good example. Not an EU member!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @07:29AM
Neither was or is Bolivia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident [wikipedia.org]
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.