The tech business nowadays is indeed very competitive, the leading tech companies in the world are trying their best to provide some of the best features on their apps for their users. However, despite of some of these companies’ success, all eyes are on them and whatever they do. Apple and Google will be facing yet another huge struggle with the Frenchmen, this time it is a legal action that is filed by Bruno Le Maire, who is the French Finance Minister.

Apple Store in France

Abusive Business Practices

In the latest reports, tech giants Apple and Google has been accused of abusive business practices which is something very serious. This could cost them millions of dollars if ever the case takes a major turn. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire is the one neither filed a case against these two tech Giants last week. According to his statement, Apple, as well as Google, are actually both “imposing tariffs on developers” when they wish to sell some of the apps that they make so it could be a part of the App Store and Google Play. The French Finance Minister believes that it is absolutely unfair for these companies to manipulate developers especially if they could gather more data from them.

Maire said that he will actually file a case against Apple and Google since despite how powerful they may be, they don’t have any right to treat any start-up developed the way they do. Everyone started from the bottom so they should be treated equally and not take advantage of them.

He also added that the French government is in the midst of discussing On demanding some taxes from the top tech companies since they seem to be avoiding “billions of dollars of revenues” and Maire said that they may finalize it in 2019.

This is not the very first time that France has actually sued Google because of taxes. In 2016, they were asking Google to pay $1.7 billion, however, Google won the case after the court found out that the tech company actually obeyed the laws of the European Union and don’t actually need to pay for any amount.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire sues Apple and Google

France VS Apple

Looks like France and Apple won’t be in each other’s good graces anytime soon because this is actually not the very first time that France has actually taken a legal action against the biggest tech company in the world. Just a couple of months ago, a French prosecutor launched a preliminary investigation because of the said deception and planned obsolescence of Apple’s products.

This is after Apple CEO Tim Cook has admitted having been trying to slow down their older iPhone models. The company has acknowledged this fact and their explanation says that they are not exactly slotting it down, it is just an effect to be able to reduce the power of demands so that the older iPhone models could still perform well.

The older iPhone models are said to have been trouble with their batteries because of the faster and much newer performance that the updated iOS that works best on the latest iPhones. This preliminary investigation is said to take months since it will all depend on the findings, then again, the case could also be dropped or be handed over to the judiciary department so the investigation could dig deeper. The consumer association in France which is known as the HOP or Stop Planned Obsolescence also filed a complaint against Apple for the same reason.

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Apple has yet to release a statement regarding this matter, and they are not even done with this, another accusation from the same country have is underway. Apple and Google, are not the only ones who are actually facing a lot of lawsuits and controversies. Facebook, who is considered to the biggest social media platform in the world with more than a billion users, is also facing not just one but two cases against.

The tech industry is indeed struggling at the moment with lawsuit after lawsuit, however, according to some tech analysts, this wouldn’t affect their company’s credibility and image, unless of course, a clear evidence will come out that would make them lose the case. Which is why some nations are starting to enact laws to prevent tech companies from creating and selling gadgets that wouldn’t exactly last for a couple of years despite being so pricey.