Earlier this week, Apple just had a ruling in its favor that was regarding unpaid taxes worth 13.9 billion US Dollars in Ireland. However, it seems the company didn’t have time to celebrate as another possible investigation into its voice assistant may have it shell out a 26 billion US Dollars fine.
For those unaware, the European Union Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, was behind the tax evasion lawsuit in Ireland. And now, the official is looking into information from 400 companies to see if there is any possible misconduct with voice assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa. If any foul play is found, the companies behind these voice assistants may face an antitrust charge.
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In the past, such inquiries have led to multi billion dollar fines being imposed against various industries related to energy, finances, and even pharmaceutics. In other words, the EU is trying to acquire information from 400 companies, to send a message to industry giants like Apple, Amazon, and Google. A message that is meant to keep them in check.
The companies that break the voice assistant rules regarding competition, a fine of 10 percent of its global revenue can be imposed. Meaning, Apple’s 260 billion US Dollar global revenue from last year could have it fined for 26 billion US Dollars. This move arrives due to the inherent amount of consumer data IoT products and recent smart products work with. Unfortunately, it is still too early in the investigation to say anything right now and we will keep you posted regarding any major updates in the matter.
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(Via)
