Just ran into this on Amazon looking to buy a vacuum cleaner, the initial search top search results where all refurbs being sold back by the Amazon refurb service and cost more than the retail price of the same vacuum directly from the Shark store. I had to sculp my search to actually get to the real vendor store (Shark) on Amazon.
You need to be a query engineer to overcome the perverse search algorithm that goes out of its way to sell you junk and knock off's. It didn't used to be this way and how much revenue is enough revenue when it comes at the expense of the consumers.
I can't imagine how difficult it is for regular consumers who haven't developed these skills as part of their job to navigate these sites now.
I use Amazon for basic reviews (knowing sellers and reviewers fully game this) to get an idea of basic considerations, then buy locally or via some other online portal.
I only actually buy stuff on Amazon that are low-cost, non-critical items or if the shipping time is critical and I can't get it locally.
Can anyone knowledgeable about this stuff explain this?
> “This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to,” Apple said in a statement on Tuesday. “The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the U.S.”
Is Apple being treated differently here in any way than other international companies?
Apple already has €1.2bn interest on top of their 2016 ruling. They could probably try to keep this in courts but it seems unlikely they'll get further hearings on this now.
In this case it's quite easy: Luxembourg does not discriminate between the companies that want to use their country for tax breaks, they will all be treated/taxed the same. Ireland did not apply the same tax rate on every companies, which distort competition and is anti-market behavior, and the ECJ just validated that.
Wild that this about behavior from 7 years ago - imagine additional fines that will need to be paid in 7 years for current market manipulation by some of these giant players (incl in US). Things are moving really slow. The amounts are also just a drop in the bucket...
Splitting up Google seems more and more likely, probably would raise the overall market cap and drive innovation
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You need to be a query engineer to overcome the perverse search algorithm that goes out of its way to sell you junk and knock off's. It didn't used to be this way and how much revenue is enough revenue when it comes at the expense of the consumers.
I can't imagine how difficult it is for regular consumers who haven't developed these skills as part of their job to navigate these sites now.
I only actually buy stuff on Amazon that are low-cost, non-critical items or if the shipping time is critical and I can't get it locally.
> “This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to,” Apple said in a statement on Tuesday. “The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the U.S.”
Is Apple being treated differently here in any way than other international companies?
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It is interesting how places like Luxembourg get away with similar antics.
Splitting up Google seems more and more likely, probably would raise the overall market cap and drive innovation
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