Also, what prevents the guy from setting up that service in a European country (Switzerland is not subject to EU laws)?
I don't see why his 10 years of work would be lost.
I don't see why his 10 years of work would be lost.
It's risky to relocate the servers in another country. You will have to obey the other country's laws, but the US gov will still claim jurisdiction if the staff and/or owner is in the US. The US will even claim jurisdiction as soon as you use a ".com" domain [1]
Of course the hosting nation will also claim jurisdiction. So relocating your servers to one country while staying in another will expose you to two national laws as well as any international agreements between these nations.
[1] Richard O’Dwyer, a UK citizen who ran a UK-based web site, was facing extradition to the U.S. because he used a .com domain. - http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/jun/17/student-file-shar...
If the purchasing party is less scrupulous, you've thwarted nothing. In extreme cases (or for smaller companies), the purchaser could even be a government front.