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FACEBOOK CEO MARK Zuckerberg announced his support for the EU’s plans to create a single set of internet rules for the region,
The measure would, among other things, mean the end of companies shutting off access to online content based on geoblocking (in certain cases), and create a broad set of rules for both large multinational companies and smaller startups trying to get a foothold in the market.
And that has Zuckerberg’s support who explained the idea ”just makes a lot more sense” at a Q&A session.
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“One dynamic that we see is each country has very different laws and that makes it very difficult to know what you’re supposed to do when you’re trying to offer services as you’re trying to confirm to twenty different laws,” said Zuckerberg.
There’s this big push to create… one broad set of internet regulations across the EU and I think that’s would be very good because if you do that, you make it so that it’s easier for them [businesses] to offer services, easier for them to comply with the laws because they actually know what the laws are.
I think a single market would just make a lot more sense. It would lead to better services for people in Europe and just more ability for companies like us to know what we’re supposed to do.”
It’s easy to see why it would support such a measure. Facebook has to deal with the laws of every country and a one size fits all rule would benefit the company.
Also, as Re/Code notes, this proposal could hurt WhatsApp as part of the plans involve placing services like it and Skype under the same regulation as telecom providers. As well as that, one broad set of rules could hinder Facebook as issues like competition may come into play.
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The only way to do that is to either no longer require VAT to be charged at the consumer State’s rate (then every online merchant will just move to the one with the lowest) or to harmonise VAT rates (cause that’s never a sensitive issue…)
I’m not actually averse to a harmonised VAT rate, and considering most are around 20% anyway it would probably be the least controversial of taxes to harmonise, but “least” controversial would still be very controversial.
Vat on children’s shoes was enough to collapse a government here in the 80′s.
Don’t underestimate the difficulties in this. It is not just about the % rate, but also about what should be vatable or not
It’s the World Wide Web and therefore access anywhere anytime is what should be the goal. Geo blocking and all that crap defeats the original intention of the www and that is for educational purposes and research.
Stuff like this is why I love the EU. Common sense policies that benefit millions of people. Like when they passed that law forcing mobile manufacturers to adopt a universal charging standard.
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