[Tade0]

They somehow trust each other to keep their conspiracy secret.

That's not what I said. What I said was that each government individually decided that it was in their interest to fine Google.

No EU-level plotting - just incentives.

[anoncake]

The heads of government and ministers don't get to keep the fines for themselves. It's in their self-interest to get themselves bribed by Google, not to fine them.

Secretly taxing Google by making a privacy law, giving businesses years to prepare for it and hoping Google violates it anyway doesn't even make sense. Taxing them using, well, taxes is easier, quicker and more likely to work.

[Tade0]

Taxing them using, well, taxes is easier, quicker and more likely to work.

Is it really? To date Google et consortes managed to dogdge just about any tax law thrown at them. Meanwhile the fines are incurred and paid.

[anoncake]

You're right. But that isn't because it's impossible to write a working tax law, but because the EU hasn't managed to agree on passing one without someone insisting on loopholes.

(The people who decided to expand the EU to 28 members without overhauling its decision-making processes, which were designed for a community of 5 members with a much more limited scope, must have been on drugs.)

You wrote that all countries are interested in money. To an extent that is of course true, and it also applies to Ireland.