French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition

jfruh writes "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."

Comments

Re:Airbus

[countertrolling]

Airbuses are free? I'll take two

Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

Even the headline in the linked article is absurd: "French court protectionism fines Google Maps for succeeding". No, that's not what they were fined for. They were fined for what French competitor Bottin claimed would happen two years ago--Google would offer Maps for free, make their competitors go bankrupt, and then start charging for Maps once they controlled the market. That's precisely what ended up happening!

So instead of France doing something back then, when the competitors could have made money, they waited until those competitors went bankrupt and levied a fine for their *own* profit?

I like their business strategy.

Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no danger of Linux gaining market ascendancy.

Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago

[Jorl17]

Given the trend, we'll have to pay Microsoft for it, no matter what laws they break.

Re:True depending how you consider the whole issue

[Anonymous Coward]

I know what you mean and its not just Google!

I bought an entire set of encyclopedias - over $1000 worth. Now Wikipedia and the internet in general are giving people all this info for FREE.

Duh! That's certainly UNFAIR.