Comment by dandare
5 years ago
I am not fan of regulation, but apparently not every abuse of the market can be solved by courts in a practical way. Like in this case, a mere mortal can not possibly sue Google.
I can imagine the EU will step in soon. There are multiple different aspects of being locked out of a "free" service provider like Google:
- Losing your email addresses - even if it was provided for free, will cause an immense harm. Email addresses will soon be transferable between companies like mobile numbers are today.
- Losing your own data - GDPR was a first step, user should have a right to his own data even if he was locked out of a platform.
- Losing digital goods like apps or ebooks. With a transferable email address these will become transferable too.
I'm not sure how a foo@gmail.com email address could realistically be transferred to another provider.
At the very least, I wish there was a regulation that forced platforms to provide users with an explicit reason why their account was suspended. No vague "please read our T&Cs" statements. Instead, something along the lines of "We have suspended your YouTube account because in video A you made statement B at time index C which violates our rule D". No doubt it would be burdensome for the likes of Google to implement, but that's what you get when you become so large that you can destroy your users' livelihoods on a whim.
How do you want to transfer your apps from Google Store? Is there any other service with those apps?
Not away from Google Store, just under a different account. But you are right, I did not think it through.