> The US believes it has extraterritorial jurisdiction as well in many places, even in some cases where it isn't their citizens that are affected.

So what? We're discussing the GDPR. Pretty sure the US has no similar law at all. GDPR was considered a first.

> In general countries may well claim that their law applies even if you believe it doesn't, you then break that law at your own risk

You're trying to compare GDPR to general prinicples and it doesn't work. GDPR was a new type of law.

See https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/risk/articles/gdpr-ext...

"Let’s say for example that you are a Chinese web shop with a website that is available in German, French and English as well. You also process multiple orders a day from individuals within the EU and ship your products to them. This will make you fall in the scope of the GDPR, even though you have no establishment in the EU and are not performing any data processing activities within the EU."

Yeah, that's unprecedented.