No matter how the law is written, if the result is that the exceptions only apply to French companies and not to the US, it’s bullshit :).
They could pick arbitrary ways to bisect the set until they get the desired result.
They could pick arbitrary ways to bisect the set until they get the desired result.
26 companies fall under the required threshold. Not all of them are US based and there's even a French one (criteo).
Here is the full list [1]:
• Sales of goods: Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Ebay, Google, Groupon, Rakuten, Schibsted, Wish, Zalando.
• Services: Amadeus, Axel Springer, Booking, Expedia, Match.com, Randstad, Recruit, Sabre, Travelport Worldwide, Tripadvisor, Uber.
• Advertisement: Amazon, Criteo, Ebay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Verizon.
[1] http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2019/03/20/20002-20190320...
FYI, Alibaba's revenue (~56B) exceeds that of Ebay (~10B), Uber (~11B), Expedia (~11b), Twitter (~3b), Groupon (~3v) and Tripadvisor (~2b) combined.
Yes, Amazon/Apple/Microsoft/Google/Verizon are still huge. But it doesn't mean there aren't other big fish out there.
This is just another example of Americans (and hey, I’m American) feeling they are permitted to do whatever they want, even outside of their own borders. It’s peak arrogance.
It's funny that the US is allowed to tariff anyone who breathes at them wrong under the guise of protecting US jobs/etc. but they are up in arms when another country decides to implement anything remotely seen as "against the US".
About 30 companies will pay it - mostly US groups such as Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Chinese, German, Spanish and British firms are also affected, as well as the French online advertising firm Criteo.