French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition 238
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."
Re:Airbus (Score:5, Funny)
Airbuses are free? I'll take two
Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago (Score:3, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
There's no danger of Linux gaining market ascendancy.
Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago (Score:5, Funny)
Re:True depending how you consider the whole issue (Score:0, Funny)
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.