The Paris Commercial Court fined Google 2 million euros for abusive commercial practices on its Play Store application store on March 28. The American company has three months to rewrite seven unbalanced clauses of the contract offered to French developers.
Google took advantage of its power to impose unfair clauses
The case began to drag in the maze of French justice where Google tried to make it disappear. Originally, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) assigned the American giant and its competitor Apple on the decision of the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire in 2018, for suspicion of abuse of dominant position on contracts for the Play Store between May 2015 and July 2016.
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For Apple the procedure is still in progress. In the Google case, the court confirmed that these contracts “ reflect the submission or attempt to submit application developers to obligations creating a significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties “. Thanks to the dominance of its Android operating system, associated with two-thirds of smartphones in France, Google dominates the application store market with its Play Store.
Based on this observation, the American company has been criticized for various practices creating an imbalance with the developers. First of all, the sinews of war, money. Google used to take a 30% commission on all Play Store app transactions. In addition, Google imposes its own price range for an application, from 0.50 to 350 euros.
Another grievance against the technological giant, the possibility of modifying or terminating contracts unilaterally, of appropriating the data of the service, without reciprocity, of not involving its responsibility vis-à-vis developers and users in the event of a problem. .
Before the court, Google used, on its pricing policy, its usual arguments, also mobilized by Apple: to protect Android users from fraud and to be remunerated for its service. For the justice the company did not bring the proof of what it advances on the shutter of the protection. For his pay The echoes note that it is not to be complained about between its registration fees, advertising and the data recovered.
Unsurprisingly, Google said ” We regret the decision of the Commercial Court of Paris and take note of it “. For the company, this case is already old and certain practices no longer exist. The asymmetry on the possibility of terminating a contract has been resolved, the commission has dropped to 15% for services generating less than 1 million dollars per year on the Play Store.
A good start, but other clauses have to be fulfilled. Le Figaro explains that after three months, if the required changes have not been carried out, a fine of 10,000 euros per day of delay will be imposed.
The arrival of spring in the closed gardens
The amounts of the financial penalties seem derisory in the face of a company whose market capitalization is close to 1,900 billion dollars. The decision of the commercial court, however, is part of an international movement of regulation and sanction against Google and Apple. Anger grows.
The Digital Markets Act is close to completion in the European Union, the American Congress is discussing laws on the opening of application stores, South Korea has already legislated… On the judicial level of antitrust investigations, there are lawsuits two sides of the Atlantic.
This pressure forces Google and Apple to water down their wine (alongside fierce lobbying and legal battles). The first has decided to experiment with the opening of a third-party payment system with Spotify, the second is going to open it up to Netflix, Spotify, Kindle-type applications… Little by little, the cracks are appearing on the fences of the jealously guarded gardens of the two giants.