France Files Complaint Against Apple, Google For “Abusive Commercial Practices”
“No matter how powerful Google and Apple may be, they cannot treat our start-ups and developers the way they do today”
France is not happy with the way that Apple and Google are allegedly treating its smaller software developers and has filed a complaint asking that the two tech giants stop “abusive commercial practices.”
The Wall Street Journal reports:
France wants to fine Apple Inc. AAPL -0.01% and Google for allegedly taking advantage of smaller French software developers, targeting two of the U.S.’s biggest companies, as tensions heat up between the two continents after President Donald Trump said he would adopt new tariffs that could hit European firms.
The French Finance Ministry said Wednesday it has filed a complaint asking a Paris court to order Apple and Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., GOOGL -0.11% to end “abusive commercial practices” following a three-year government investigation into how the Silicon Valley companies treat French start-ups that develop and sell applications for mobile phones. Some developers and publishers are unhappy that Apple and Google at times take a cut of in-app purchases and get access to more data on their users and subscribers than the developers do.
“No matter how powerful Google and Apple may be, they cannot treat our start-ups and developers the way they do today,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on French radio.
“We believe our terms comply with French laws and are looking forward to making our case in court,” a Google spokeswoman said. Apple didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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