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France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

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Re: France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

#11

Post by uniclaude »

Tichy wrote: post #6
dlikhten wrote: post #5

Reporter totally misses the point. The point is that google provided google maps for free. That is great. except when all other competition dies (because who can compete with a better, freer version of your product?) google starts charging pretty rediculous rates. That move in itself is what contributed to the ruling. OSM is free for everyone. It is a wiki. If OSM destroys google, bing, etc, and then decides to go on…

OK so lets shut down Wikipedia next.

Well, either you did not understand the comment you are replying to, or you believe that Wikipedia will charge for its access. What does make you think such a thing ?

Re: France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

#12

Post by yanw »

dlikhten wrote: post #5

Reporter totally misses the point. The point is that google provided google maps for free. That is great. except when all other competition dies (because who can compete with a better, freer version of your product?) google starts charging pretty rediculous rates. That move in itself is what contributed to the ruling. OSM is free for everyone. It is a wiki. If OSM destroys google, bing, etc, and then decides to go on…

Didn't they start charging because they started getting sued for offering it free of charge?

And according to other reports it's apparently illegal in France to offer something for free if it costs money to develop. But what about those who enjoyed using the free stuff and even built businesses on top of it?

Re: France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

#14

Post by ukdm »

This seems ridiculous if it is the free version of the Google Maps API. But, if Google is offering the paid-for Business version of the API for free, then Bottin has a case. I don't see it stated anywhere if the case specifically targeted the free or business version of the API. Does anyone know?

Re: France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

#15

Post by aprescott »

As the comments on the article point out, this seems to be about the enterprise maps service to businesses which ordinarily is at a cost.

From Le Monde[1]:

"As such, it considered that Google Maps distorted the rules of free competition by providing the same service to businesses while it undergoes costs to design the product."

["A ce titre, elle considérait que l'application Google Maps faussait les règles de la concurrence en offrant gratuitement aux entreprises le même service alors qu'elle-même subit des coûts pour concevoir son produit."]

The enterprise service FAQ[2] contains:

"Google Maps API for Business is extremely cost-effective, starting at just $10,000 per year. Pricing is based on the number of map page views for externally facing websites. For internal uses, it is based on page views or number of vehicles being tracked. Please contact us for more information."

Slightly changes the story.

[1]: http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2012/02/01/google...

[2]: http://www.google.com/enterprise/earthmaps/maps-faq.html

Re: France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

#19

Post by _delirium »

[deleted] wrote: post #16
nodata wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe has loads of nice things. You should visit sometime. This ruling, presumably, is about a big company subsidising its unprofitable mapping business with another part of its business until the small fish die.

[deleted]

There's no blanket prohibition on offering things for free that cost money to develop. There are free French search engines and newspapers with free websites, for example, as well as French companies that develop open-source software. A court would have to find that the free service is being cross-subsidized and offered at a loss for the purpose of driving competitors out of business, to later profit from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing). That's also illegal in the U.S., but U.S. courts tend to require a higher bar to demonstrate it.
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