Google was fined $660,000 in France over unfair competitive practices with Google Maps.
The AFP has the crazy news:
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.
Since Google is offering their mapping service for free, as does Bing Maps, Ask Maps, Yahoo Maps, MapQuest and so on - but because Google is doing it, they have to pay $660,000 in damages.
What am I missing? Is it just that France just really hates Google?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
