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Comment by moocowduckquack | Hacker News Reader

So they are perfectly happy to admit liability and pay up, as long as they aren't forced to publicise that admission to the people that the court case itself was on behalf of.

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This time, yes, because it's about privacy and the CNIL can't do much more than 150,000€.

But France also asks Google for 1 billion € of unpaid taxes over the last years, and this time I guess they will really try to avoid paying (hopefully they won't be able to, but we'll see).

American billion or European billion? In this case I think the distinction is important (I guess it's the first case... the latter would be... big, very big, hugely, mindbogglingly big)

Like I said, 1 billion €, so a "European billion". Yes it is a lot of money. But even more so is the amount of money that Google earned in France and managed not to declare to the fisc (the French tax administration).

Sure, it's almost the definition of tax (it should be less than the amount earned.) I hope they pay, it's not like we are floating in money in Europe currently.

Nah, it's a thousand million, a milliard in other words. It's confusing.

https://www.google.com/search?q=google+france+milliard+impot...

The anglosphere uses short scale billions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Current_...

Ya I didn't know that. I thought his question was € vs $, which is why I didn't quite understood it. Thanks for picking up my mistake.

To clarify, a European billion is an American trillion [1] (an American billion is a European milliard), which is why RBerenguel said "the latter would be... big, very big, hugely, mindbogglingly big."

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

Just to clarify: in continental Europe and USA billion means different number. [0]

I'd guess USA billion, as it's about taxes and taxes can't be bigger than what Google is worth...

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

He, I didn't know that, thanks for sharing.

Don't assume. They are French taxes, after all. It's entirely possible that Google could owe them more than the net worth of the planet.

Yep, I think that sums it up. The fine is pocket money for Google so surely it's not about that.

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