undefined | Better HN

0 pointsjacquesm7y ago0 comments

No, you don't have to close at all. You just need to comply with the law, just like everybody else. You also need to file your taxes, keep the books in order, ensure that you do not pollute the environment, in some cases you need to be licensed in order to be able to practice your trade and so on.

Why would this particular regulation suddenly cause you to close your business unless you were doing something really shady?

0 comments

tathougies7y ago

Perhaps it costs money to do so, and the company does not have enough working capital + lines of credit to make the payments necessary?

I feel like your statement here is basically "you are a business, therefore it is impossible for you to run out of money", which -- superficially -- seems very naive.

bkor7y ago

Obviously it might cost money (or time, which might mean money). Argument is still the same, it's not out of the ordinary to comply with regulations and laws.

It seems more like a cultural difference, whereby some one-man shops from US find privacy not important.

tathougies7y ago

No there's no cultural difference (or perhaps there is, but it's not on display here). It's not out of the ordinary to comply with regulations and laws -- businesses often change to do so. However, it's also not out of the ordinary for businesses to go out of business due to legal situations. Both are signs of a functioning regulatory environment.

jacquesmOP7y ago

At that level it doesn't have to cost anything other than your time. And if it's not a business it is a hobby and those cost time (and usually also money).

The GDPR is not going to cause any but the weakest businesses to close shop, in fact if the GDPR causes a business to close (which I highly doubt other than people voluntarily throwing in the towel because they can't be bothered) then I am not sure if I'm going to shed tears over that because it likely means that that business was so weak already that other things besides GDPR compliance were suffering as well (such as security).

tathougies7y ago

The comment I responded to cited environmental regulation. These are oftentimes costly to implement. All regulation costs money to implement. Even if each regulation by itself is cheap, these things add up -- it's death by a thousand cuts.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

tathougies7y ago

Perhaps it costs money to do so, and the company does not have enough working capital + lines of credit to make the payments necessary?

I feel like your statement here is basically "you are a business, therefore it is impossible for you to run out of money", which -- superficially -- seems very naive.

bkor7y ago

Obviously it might cost money (or time, which might mean money). Argument is still the same, it's not out of the ordinary to comply with regulations and laws.

It seems more like a cultural difference, whereby some one-man shops from US find privacy not important.

tathougies7y ago

jacquesmOP7y ago

At that level it doesn't have to cost anything other than your time. And if it's not a business it is a hobby and those cost time (and usually also money).

tathougies7y ago

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse