European regulations are expensive? Do you have data or a solid source for that?
I ask because I worked for European a company that set up a subsidiary in the US; the costs of US regulations was higher than we were used to. The biggest factor was some sort of insurance that we absolutely needed to cover things that might happen. I didn't even want to know the details, I wanted to write code, but I did notice that the total budget for lawyer stuff was high. Back home we had clear regulations and low uncertainty, in the US the uncertainty was higher and we needed insurance.
This can vary by industry. The US has very burdensome financial regulations but generally more lax privacy and speech regulations. So a fintech might be cheaper to operate with compliance in the EU but a social network might be cheaper to operate with compliance in the US.
For having set up businesses on both sides, Europe was more expensive in time wasted in paperwork. There is also a lot of old rules and weird fiscal policies. In the US setting up and running a business was relatively a breeze.
I ask because I worked for European a company that set up a subsidiary in the US; the costs of US regulations was higher than we were used to. The biggest factor was some sort of insurance that we absolutely needed to cover things that might happen. I didn't even want to know the details, I wanted to write code, but I did notice that the total budget for lawyer stuff was high. Back home we had clear regulations and low uncertainty, in the US the uncertainty was higher and we needed insurance.