Google was sentenced Monday by the Commercial Court of Paris to a "civil fine" of 2 million euros for abusive commercial practices towards mobile app developers, and must modify seven clauses of its distribution contract, according to the judgment accessed Tuesday by AFP.
Google was sued in 2018 by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), under the impetus of the Ministry of Economy Bruno Le Maire, which accused him of "imposing fees" on French start-ups wishing to sell their applications on its platforms, to recover their data and to be able to "unilaterally modify the contracts."
30% commission on each sale
The court deemed that the seven disputed clauses of the distribution contract, dated from May 5, 2015 to July 2, 2016, were "imposed by Google without effective negotiation" and " express the submission or attempted submission of application developers to obligations creating a significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties ". One of these clauses obliged developers to set the prices of their applications within a price range defined by Google, and to let the web giant take a 30% commission on each sale made on the Play Store.
Given the " seriousness of the practices " incriminated, Google will have to pay a civil fine of 2 million euros which comes " to correct the infringement to the economic public order ". It will also have to modify its clauses within three months. "Android and Google Play offer developers more choice than any other platform, and the opportunity to reach an ever-wider audience," Google told AFP. The group claims that it has already amended several clauses pointed out by the court, and that it has recently lowered its commission for small developers and for subscriptions. Apple, which had also been assigned in 2018 by the DGCCRF, is still waiting for a court decision on it. Both U.S. giants are under intense global pressure to limit their arch-dominant position in the lucrative mobile app market.
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