France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition
(AFP)

PARIS — A French commercial court has found Google guilty of abusing the dominant position of its Google Maps application and ordered it to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping company.

In a ruling Tuesday, the Paris court upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google France and its parent company Google Inc. for providing free web mapping services to some businesses.
The court ordered Google to pay 500,000 euros ($660,000) in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a 15,000 euro fine.

The French company provides the same services for a fee and claimed the Google strategy was aimed at undercutting competitors by temporarily swallowing the full cost until it gains control of the market.

"This is the end of a two-year battle, a decision without precedent," said the lawyer for Bottin Cartographes, Jean-David Scemmama.

"We proved the illegality of (Google's) strategy to remove its competitors... the court recognised the unfair and abusive character of the methods used and allocated Bottin Cartographes all it claimed. This is the first time Google has been convicted for its Google Maps application," he said.

A Google France spokesman said the company would appeal.
"We will appeal this decision. We remain convinced that a free high-quality mapping tool is beneficial for both Internet users and websites. There remains competition in this sector for us, both in France and internationally," he said.

Google has previously faced other difficulties in France and last March the country's data privacy regulator imposed a record fine of 100,000 euros on the company for collecting private information while compiling its Street View service.

Wait for the money in one hand.

Shit in the other.


which one fills up first?


little yappie dog france says what to the most powerful nation on the planet? What window do you want us to put this missile thru? down stairs or up?

If Google was smart, they would cut off all access of their services to the frog-niggers.

Let them live with over priced, substandard bullshit - they're used to that.

right

cant they just flick a switch and turn off google maps ala .fr?

how hard could it be ?
just turn off all of google france
go white like TTH

for providing free web mapping services to some businesses.

You fucking kidding me. Are frogs setting min and max prices for prostitution already?

if google are wiping the competition out, to then charge high fees, then the court came to a fair decision

Lord_Haw_Haw wrote:

if google are wiping the competition out, to then charge high fees, then the court came to a fair decision

Holy shit, Alan.

All this time I thought you were a nazi and it turns out you're a flaming commie pinko.

You know Al, if all the population of Australia vanished overnight no one in the civilized world would even notice for a week.

They are not under cutting - mapping is a throw away freebie since it's a bi product of other revenue projects like business locators.

No wonder froggie will vote for the 1960's socialist Hollande - frogs could barely handle the 20th century - the 21st will doom them.

All American tech giants such as Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, HP, Intel, etc. should raise the prices on their French rate sheets and line cards accordingly due to Flinch bureaucratic and judicial interference with U.S. commerce in Europe. It is impossible for Google to be unfairly competitive in a Flintstones-style tech market like France.

There are no French companies that exist that offer any viable alternative products against Redmond or Silicon Valley. Like aerospace, the French just don't do I.T. either, and should stay in the kitchen with the women and make the rest of us a fucking sammich.

why stop there at France, you should of done, Poland,Portugal,Italy,Croatia,Slovenia and the Czech republic too,

Corsica is French territory so remove that too....

Any time the little pansy ass cowards are getting their asses kicked, they'll whine and cry that it wasn't fair. They attacked MS, they'll attack Google, etc. There no better than the fucking Arabs.

They are known to violate international trade agreements and to illegally subsidize their industries.

Oh, and they attacked Apple as well- not that I'm a fan of Mac bigots, but if people want to spend their money on those products, then that is their business to do so.

Flinch have no business telling us how to run our businesses. We should hang the EU lawyers that keep filing these frivolous lawsuits.

PopsFrost wrote:

Any time the little pansy ass cowards are getting their asses kicked, they'llwhine and cry that it wasn't fair. They attacked MS, they'll attack Google, etc. There no better than the fucking Arabs.

They are known to violate international trade agreements and to illegally subsidize their industries.

PopsFrost wrote:

Any time the little pansy ass cowards are getting their asses kicked, they'll whine and cry that it wasn't fair. They attacked MS, they'll attack Google, etc. There no better than the fucking Arabs.

They are known to violate international trade agreements and to illegally subsidize their industries.

Each time the french attack,they win. Microsoft has been condemned for example. But decisions are valuable only in the french territory i think.

BurnParis wrote:

If Google was smart, they would cut off all access of their services to the frog-niggers.

Let them live with over priced, substandard bullshit - they're used to that.

If google was not available anymore, it would be a big problem. But Google map,who cares ?

Up your ass bitches, when we need it we take it.

The court ordered Google to pay 500,000 euros ($660,000) in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a 15,000 euro fine.

Gotta love them frogs, we will make you pay for offering a free service.

And they wonder why they are the laughing stock of the free world?

Time for google to flip the switch on france. Tell them to fuck off and don't pay them.

Lord_Haw_Haw wrote:

if google are wiping the competition out, to then charge high fees, then the court came to a fair decision

Jesus fucking wept - just when I thought I had heard all the dull statements you could possibly make you somehow manage 2 lower the bar even further - shame I didn't permban you when I had the chance

if google are wiping the competition out, to then charge high fees,

Lord Choke on the cock and Flinch Goooberment of course know what Google will be doing "then", you fucking commie cunt-

What Goggle needs to do is exactly what the other guys want, charge the fuck out of them.

It's what a normal French company would do.

simplefrench wrote:

BurnParis wrote:

If Google was smart, they would cut off all access of their services to the frog-niggers.

Let them live with over priced, substandard bullshit - they're used to that.

If google was not available anymore, it would be a big problem. But Google map,who cares ?

What part of "ALL access of their services" confused you simple?

FUCK FRANCE - let them hang

"Each time the French attack, they win."

In what century do you speak of, Simpleton?

France reminds me of shakedown artists like Jesse Jackson, always filing lawsuits and looking for a handout.

simplefrench wrote:

PopsFrost wrote:

Any time the little pansy ass cowards are getting their asses kicked, they'll whine and cry that it wasn't fair. They attacked MS, they'll attack Google, etc. There no better than the fucking Arabs.

They are known to violate international trade agreements and to illegally subsidize their industries.

Each time the french attack,they win. Microsoft has been condemned for example. But decisions are valuable only in the french territory i think.