What would happen if big companies simply refuse to pay? Will EU put the European employees in jail? Would they put Americans in their jail? Will they do DNS block? Credit card block? Remove apple products from physical store? Many of the EU countries like Germany are export driven and certainly they don't want to close the market.
Apple has so much stuff and money in the EU, that there will be plenty to take. Only recently have the started to take back some of the funds from Ireland. Apple would be in a pretty bad place if those accounts were all seized, not in the last place because it would block all transactions including customer ones, ones to may for servers, rent etc. Apple might look stupid but they aren't that stupid.
Did you paste that "burn" or did you actually release all that rage to reply to a one-sentence comment?
The comment above yours touches on something important. The US might not look lightly at foreign powers treating US companies in that way. The world of business and politics is give and take, it's not a video game where things can be done one-sided without consequences.
>The US might not look lightly at foreign powers treating US companies in that way.
There's significant momentum in the US against big tech, I fully expect DMA like legislation on the state level in the near future. This isn't being framed as a national/foreign issue but as a democratic and consumer rights one.
Same for other regions. Japan, South Korea, the UK are likely to adopt similar laws, India already passed a sweeping crackdown on platforms essentially treating them like public utilities earlier last year.
Can't they take all the money out a month before they are planning to refuse to pay fine? I am pretty sure EU could never block Apple's fund unless they want to totally remove all the business from EU.
What would happen if big companies simply refuse to pay? Will EU put the European employees in jail? Would they put Americans in their jail? Will they do DNS block? Credit card block? Remove apple products from physical store? Many of the EU countries like Germany are export driven and certainly they don't want to close the market.