In turbulent times, the tallest grass gets chopped first.
But also, a few megacorps increasingly occupy increasingly numerous facets of lives of billions of people and should be carefully monitored so that they don't abuse their power.
That's not how a lawnmower works. The first blade of grass taller than the lawnmower blade height encountered is cut first.
I suppose what it could mean is the field with the tallest grass gets the lawnmower first. Then again all that matters is if the grass is taller than the blade, not how much taller.
Indeed, why would you avoid shortest straw, if the tallest grass gets chopped first?
I think he meant "The tallest blade of grass is the first to be mowed down", but that's not during "turbulent times", it's when you are mowing your lawn. I guess that's turbulent for the grass.
These megacorps have been avoiding paying taxes in the jurisdictions where they make most of their money. It's only natural to expect govts. to claw some of that revenue back. People think it's about privacy but it's really about tax revenue.
That doesn’t really stack up as an argument. From 2004 to 2014 Apple used the “double-Irish” tax arrangement to shield 110B USD of profits from taxation, EU corporation tax is about 20% (taken as an average over all the countries), which would amount to about 22B USD of “unpaid” taxes. Since 2014 Apple’s revenues have doubled, if their profits have done the same, and they’re following the same broad profit margin and tax avoidance schemes (and everything suggests they do), then Apple’s “unpaid” tax is at least 66B USD.
Apple’s global revenue for 2023 was about 400B USD, and the DSA caps the fines at 10% of global revenue, so 40B USD for Apple. It’s very unlikely that Apple will be hit with a maximum out of the gate, that’s not really how these regulators work (you want to make sure you can always issue a bigger fine later).
How is clawing back at most 57% of the unpaid taxes, in a one time fine, a good strategy for tax revenue? And of all the big tech companies, Apple has the lowest profit margin at a mere 25%, Facebook has higher margins of 30-35%, so the fines make even less sense a tax clawback mechanism there.
All of that is of ignoring the fact the EU and European Commission isn’t a federal government, and doesn’t have any tax revenue at all. Member states charge tax (or not in the case of Ireland), but the EU as an entity most certainly does not. Indeed countries like Ireland have been fighting tooth and nail against EU to avoid clawing back taxes.
So in reality, the idea the DMA is about tax revenue simple doesn’t stack up. It doesn’t stack up economically, it doesn’t stack up politically, and it doesn’t stack up practically either.
And I would appreciate it if those companies currently getting away with paying too little in taxes paid more, perhaps commensurate with the amount they benefit from existing infrastructure.
But also, a few megacorps increasingly occupy increasingly numerous facets of lives of billions of people and should be carefully monitored so that they don't abuse their power.