• From CNBC:
"Amazon is fighting its inclusion in the European Union’s list of companies that are subject to landmark online content rules, marking the first U.S. challenge to the proposed legislation.
"The e-retailer on Tuesday filed a petition in Luxembourg’s General Court arguing it should not be designated as one of the 17 'very large online platforms,' or VLOPs, under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which imposes stricter rules around policing illegal material on their platforms. Fellow U.S. tech giants Google, Meta and Apple are also subject to the rules.
"Amazon disputed it being labeled a VLOP under the act, saying the designation applies to companies with advertising as their primary revenue and that distribute speech and information."
• From Fox Business:
"Beleaguered American consumers are getting toasted by Big Tech with a brazen new fee on food. And restaurateurs who are being blamed by their customers for the added cost are fed up and angry … Toast Inc., a powerful cloud-based third-party point-of-sale vendor used by more than 85,000 restaurants, is unilaterally adding a 99-cent 'processing fee' to online orders of $10 or more.
"The fee is being charged to consumers — not to the restaurants that are paying Toast for its services."
I'm not happy with a plethora of fees charged by all sorts of businesses. And I'm particularly annoyed when companies are not transparent about it. But I think the most important words in the story are "for its services." If Toast is providing businesses and shoppers with a tangible value, then it should be compensated - nothing in life is free. But that said, there needs to be complete transparency about the amount being charged, what the charge is for, and in what company's pocket the money is going.
