France to Sue Google, Apple Over 'Abusive Trade Practices' - Economy Minister

PARIS (Sputnik) - France will take tech giants Google and Apple to court for "abusive trade practices," which include unilaterally imposing prices on software developers, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Wednesday.

"I will have Google and Apple taken to the Commercial Court of Paris for abusive trade practices, because I believe that Google and Apple, no matter how powerful they are, cannot treat our start-ups and our developers the way they are doing today. Google and Apple can unilaterally modify contracts with developers, which is unacceptable," Le Maire told the RTL broadcaster.

READ MORE: Excerpts From Law Targeting Sputnik, RT Published in France — Reports

The minister also expressed hope that the new taxation rules for the revenues of GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) that the European Commission is expected to present at the end of March would start being implemented in Europe from the beginning of 2019.

In February, the Politico news website reported, citing a draft European Commission report, that the European Union was planning to tax gross revenues of large tech companies at rates between 1 and 5 percent, based on the location of their users and how much advertising revenue they bring in.

The proposal was aimed at tech giants, like Google and Facebook, with revenues above 750 million euros ($928 million) worldwide and with digital revenues in the European Union of at least 10 million euros in a tax year.