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Comment by actually_a_dog | Hacker News Reader

Yes, I disagree that fining a company with nearly $117 billion in revenue a billion euro is “large.” That’s “cost of doing business” money, not any kind of punishment or deterrent.

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This "cost of doing business" meme is becoming annoying. Collectively, Facebook, WhatsApp and Meta platforms have been fined in 2022 for $687 million by a single country alone, Ireland[1]. $117 billion was the global revenue, the revenue generated in Europe was $25.8 billion[2], so the fines amount to 2.6% of what they make by accessing the European markets. Also their net income was $23.2 billion, globally, so the fines from a single country made 3% of that.

Do you still think it's a negligible cost? These costs are also going up: in January 2023 Ireland issued two more fines for $0.4 billion.

[1]: You can check at https://www.enforcementtracker.com/

[2]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/745351/facebooks-quarter...

> by a single country alone, Ireland[1].

Ireland's data privacy serves as Meta's main regulator in the European Union because the company's European headquarters are in Dublin. Making it out as if Ireland's GDPR fines are "just one country" is disingenuous.

Yes, ~1 billion from $177 billion in global revenue is a negligible cost.

Of which profits are < 25$ billion. How much of that was generated within the EU?

I don't see why that's relevant.

Then why did you put numbers in your first post if you don't find them relevant? You find local fine/global revenue somehow relevant but you don't find local fine/local profit or even local fine/local revenue relevant? Could you explain why?

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