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Le tribunal de commerce de Paris, qui a condamné mercredi le groupe Internet américain et sa filiale française à 500.000 euros de dommages et intérêts et 15.000 euros de frais de justice.

En proposant gratuitement le service de cartographie Google Maps aux entreprises, Google se rend coupable d'abus de position dominante. C'est l'avis du tribunal de commerce de Paris, qui a condamné mercredi le groupe Internet américain et sa filiale française à 500.000 euros de dommages et intérêts et 15.000 euros de frais de justice dans une affaire l'opposant à l'entreprise française Bottin Cartographes.

Par Marie-Catherine Beuth
Journaliste, Le Figaro

Author: Caitlin Dempsey • 2/02/12 • Categorized as Internet Mapping 

A French court has determined that Google has abused its position with its Google Maps application by engaging in unfair competition practices.  The lawsuit was brought in 2010 by French company, Bottin Cartographes, which lodged a complaint against Google France claiming that by providing free mapping services to some companies, it was undercutting competition.  Bottin Cartographes offers the some of the same services as Google Maps but charges a fee.  The french cartography company asserted that Google’s offering of free mapping services was a strategy meant to wipe out competition.

The court fined Google 15,000 euros and ordered the company to pay 500,000 euros in damages and interest to Bottin Cartographes.  Google France plans to appeal the verdict stating, ”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,”

It will be interesting to see what this ruling means for other mapping services that also offer mapping services for free such as OpenStreetMap and Open MapQuest, the latter of which open up its services in September of 2010 to France, Italy, Spain, and Germany.

While Google Maps is a free service for most users, the company recent began to charge for excessive Google Maps API usage.

Previously, Google found itself in hot water when it was fined 100,000 euros for privacy violations by France’s data privacy regulator for data collected as part of its Street View program.  An article about the French lawsuit in Forbes also notes that Google is also under antitrust  investigation for its business practices by the “FTC, DOJ, Texas, California, New York, the European Union, and Korea.”

French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition
Thu, 2012/02/02 - 13:29 — Satri

Slashdot runs a discussion named French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition.

Their summary: "A French court has ruled that Google is unfairly subsidizing its free mapping products, making for unfair competition with paid services. This might seem ridiculous, but keep in mind that Google started charging for use of its mapping API once the free version had come to dominate the market."

We of course mentioned last October that Google decided to enforce usage limits for the Google Maps API.

France Says Google Maps is Guilty of Being a Free Resource

February 2, 2012 4 Comments

You got to love France.

    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.

Bottin Cartographes’ webpage is sparse on what actually they do that people want.  Rule number one of failing, sue the rich competitor when your own stuff  falls flat.  Clearly Europe has it’s eye on Google and I suspect we’ll see many more of these “judgements”.  And god forbid, don’t let Bottin find out about OpenStreetMap.  They dump just about anything on the market for free.

France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

(AFP) – 1 day ago

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.

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