France: Google Convicted of Abusing Dominant Position with GG Maps

A French commercial court has found Google guilty of abusing its dominant position with Google Maps to erase the competition. The court ordered Google to pay €500,000 in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a €15,000 euro fine. Google said it would appeal.

This ruling is the outcome of a two years battle launched by French online mapping solution provider Bottin Cartographes against Google France and Google Inc.

The court found Google’s guilty at two levels: the obvious one is that it provided its map service for free to business customers, while the service had an obvious cost, pushing the competition to bankrupcy.

The second count, which is less talked about but more insidious, is that Google used its dominant position in search to force companies to use its map API. Because using Google maps API improves the natural ranking in Google search and that Google has around 90 percent market share in search in France, there was not much alternative for French companies.

Google has previously faced other legal difficulties in France. In March 2011 the country's data privacy regulator imposed a fine of 100,000 euros on the company for collecting private information while compiling its Street View service. in June 2010 navigation content provider Navx won a ruling from the French antitrust authority against Google; it is now seeking €23 million in damages in court.