France to sue Apple and Google over 'unacceptable' practices
The country's finance minister says the case could lead to "millions of euros" in fines.
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has accused Apple and Google of imposing "abusive" contractual terms on French startups and developers.
Le Maire told radio station RTL on Wednesday that he will take the tech giants to the Paris commercial court, Reuters reports. He criticized the companies' practices, saying that they impose prices on developers and have the power to unilaterally rewrite their contracts.
"All that is unacceptable and it's not the economy that we want. They can't treat our startups and developers the way they do," he said, according to the Financial Times.
France has turned its attention to Apple's and Google's finances in recent years. Last October, Apple CEO Tim Cook met with President Macron to discuss his efforts to extract more taxes from tech companies. But Google was able to avoid paying $1.3 billion in back taxes after a Paris court ruled that it had "no taxable presence" in the country.
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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