While the antitrust authorities in Brussels and the United of States have launched investigations into possible abuse of dominant position of Google, which is the French court on Wednesday pulled out the first conviction for that reason. The reason: the free supply of services Google Maps for businesses. The Commercial Court of Paris ruled on the Internet giant guilty of unfair competition to the detriment of the small French company directory Cartographers and imposed a penalty of 500,000 euros in damages and 15,000 euros in fines. Google announced it would appeal the ruling.

"This will trigger the wrath of all other applications Google"

"It's the end of a fight two years is an unprecedented decision," welcomed Jean-David Scemama, a lawyer for the company directory Cartographers that Google had assigned to court in 2009. According to counsel, "is the first time that Google is condemned for its Google Maps application." "Today, all the market needs to know. Google will not stay on a free market and this will trigger the wrath of all the other Google applications," said the lawyer. And he said, the ruling of the Commercial Court opens way for Google's competitors, large groups, but also to other small SMEs to attack the American and force it to market its services.

The Google Maps service are not those referred to the general public, but those developed for companies that integrate maps on their websites. "The map products created by the company directory Cartographies happen to be very similar to those offered by Google free Google Maps API (or application programming interface)," the court noted in its ruling.

"Since the creation of Google Maps, the group's strategy was to say the markets of search engines, I am in a state of abuse of dominant position, but instead on the rest as the Google Maps, I'm on an isolated market, "said Me Scemama. "But the connection between the two markets, and Google directory mapping was demonstrated by the Commercial Court." It also recognizes that a directory Cartographers "underwent a series of injuries is characterized by an undeniable loss of customer and revenue." The court also added that "the practice of free clearly intended to optimize the marketing terms of targeted ads."

Clearly, Google would seek to eliminate competition by providing free services to companies relatively expensive, in order to further capture maximum publicity.

For its part, Google said on Wednesday France "remain convinced that a mapping tool free, high quality benefits both users and for website owners. Competition in this sector remains real for us, both in France and abroad, "according to a statement from a spokesman.

The court also ordered the publication of the sentence in the daily Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Le Monde, Le Figaro, La Tribune and Les Echos.

L counsel argues that Google Directory Cartographers "tried to maintain the service until the end, so much that they have tried just before the hearing to change their methods of sale".

The British, French Sodexo's main competitor, displays the full year operating income (Rex) from 1.09 billion pounds (1.26 billion euros), according to 12 analysts' forecasts a study provided by it.

Its sales rose by nearly 10%, with organic growth of over 5%.

The action Compass, which has outperformed the FTSE 100 by 10% since the beginning of the year, opened Wednesday down more than 3% before reducing its losses.

The Nikkei lost 34.31 points to 8,769.09 and the Topix, larger yielded 1.57 points (-0.21%) to 750.45.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou concluded an agreement with the opposition to form a coalition crisis supposed to approve the bailout of the country put together in late October in Brussels.

But in detail, both parties have provided little information on how this will unfold, including uncertainty about the identity of the future prime minister who will lead the coalition.

The euro area, you love it or leave it. This was essentially the message from Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel George Papandreou yesterday evening after a mini-crisis summit in Cannes. French President and German Chancellor had laid their conditions in the referendum decided by the Greek Prime Minister: consultation should not include the bailout of the euro but on the desire to remain or not in the euro area. And it should take place before Christmas.

From that moment, George Papandreou began successive setbacks leading to consider later in the day to withdraw its proposed referendum."One of the benefits for Greece out of the euro area is to default on its debt of 100%, but funding needs remain still very important," Jesus Castillo analysis, an economist at Natixis. Indeed, if it defaulted on its debt unilaterally and not coordinated with its creditors, Greece will be banned for a long time in financial markets. But the Greek public deficit, excluding debt burden, reached another 2.5% of GDP. To provide for turning the machine, the Greek state will have to reduce spending by 3 billion euros.

Moreover, the main losers of a total failure would not be French or German banks, but banks Hellenic, which hold a total of 52 billion Greek bonds, 15% of the debt. But the margin of Greek banks is very limited, if not nonexistent.

This tax will be sitting on their sales-tax at a rate of between 0.08% and 0.12% and is expected to bring nearly 250 million euros, the newspaper said on its website. Electricians (mainly EDF) will pay the third party, says he.

The government source confirmed the creation of this tax and its rates, but not the expected return.

Wednesday the government will introduce the draft budget for 2012 which aims to reduce the public deficit of France to 4.5% of GDP at the end of next year.

Standard & Poor's downgraded Friday the long-term rating of Groupama, a decision to which the French group had prepared internally by announcing Thursday a savings plan and measures to strengthen its financial profile.

"We will now give priority to profitability rather than market share gains (…) Also, we do not expect to make acquisitions in this period (2012-2015), "said Jean Azema, CEO of Groupama, in an interview published Monday.

"The stock market listing of Groupama is reported at period end, that is to say more towards 2015," he adds.

The Director General further states have no particular concern about the solvency of Groupama by the end of the year and believes that a solvency ratio below 100% is not part of the scenarios to the agenda 2011.

"I will not deny that the situation is a bit tense, because we used to be far in excess of 150%. But it is only due to the collapse of financial markets.I have no concern for the end of the year, "he says.

"The measures we are taking should gradually return to our solvency margin to 150%. They should also allow us to improve our underwriting results with a combined ratio (total claims and expenses to premiums) around 98%" , says he.

Asked about the participation of Groupama, including the capital of Societe Generale, Jean Azema said that the investments of his group were part of the long term.

He also stressed the strength of French banks.

"Let us not forget that they have very strong fundamentals.This is what I see, especially as a director of Societe Generale. "

Groupama is exposed to the European sovereign debt to the tune of 770 million euros at end-June in Portugal, Greece and Ireland, as well as $ 1.5 billion to Italy and 670 million for Spain detailed the CEO.

Japanese equity markets also fell in anticipation of the statistics of job creation in the United States, expected in fall.

The Nikkei lost 110.06 points to 8,950.74 and the Topix, broader, sold 8.50 points (1.09%) to 769.78.

The Nikkei has sold 9% in August and most market players expect a warmer month of September.The global uncertainty, however, continues to weigh on prices.

Next week, Japanese markets should evolve in the wake of those of the United States, where the tone will be given the speech that President Barack Obama will deliver on the job Thursday night.

Friday, the Tokyo Stock Exchange has responded little to the appointment of the new government formed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. The latter was chosen for the Minister of Finance Jun Azumi relatively inexperienced.

This choice suggests that Noda, outgoing Finance Minister, will continue to weigh on the country's economic policy.

Export values ​​have suffered in Tokyo. Sony fell 4.3% to 1,625 yen. Toyota and Honda respectively yielded 1.56% to 2,711 yen and 1.96% to 2,507 yen.

The euro continued to rise Monday above the threshold of $ 1.45, benefiting from a reflux of the risk aversion of the operators, after the speech the head of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, on Friday . To 15 hours, the European currency was worth 1.4524 dollars against 1.4490 dollars on Friday night. The euro also went further against the yen at 111.49 yen against 111.09 yen Friday.

Overall, the safe havens like the yen and Swiss franc pâtissaient the renewed attraction to risk, which benefited the other hand the European single currency. Ben Bernanke's speech, though no concrete announcement, has indeed been perceived positively by traders."We test the level of $ 1.45 but it's hard. This rise is related to the weaker dollar and renewed risk appetite in the wake of rising equity markets," noted Nordine Naam, bond strategist at Natixis. The strategist has nevertheless argued that the trend was "not strong", while the pair euro-dollar has generally traded in a range located 1.40 and $ 1.45 since May.

The call for an "urgent recapitalization" of European banks, launched Saturday by the Director General of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, did not weigh on the price of the euro. "This is the key to cut the chain of contagion," said Lagarde. It also found that to achieve this, banks should "first seek private funds to" and "using public funds if necessary."

Instead, the operators seemed more attention to the speech from Fed chief, delivered Friday at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Bernanke said that "the foundation of growth" were still there in the U.S., despite the persistence of "risks" weighing on the economy, and said to think that the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) "should improvement "in the second half.

Side of Japan, the appointment by the ruling party's finance minister, Yoshihiko Noda, to become the sixth prime minister in five years the country weighed little. "His room for maneuver is very limited, given the debt of Japan. But one wonders whether it will allow more interventions on the foreign exchange market," said Dr. Naam.

Japan is the victim for several months of the high price of the yen, seen as a safe haven, including high levels penalize their exports and weaken the economic recovery of the archipelago after the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear accident in Fukushima .

The government must announce tomorrow new fiscal austerity measures, more drastic than expected. Already a victim of fiscal tightening in 2010, tax loopholes will again suffer a serious movement of the plane. And this time, the exemptions from the overtime will not be spared. A tax on the richest households is also on the agenda.

Objective: To reduce the public deficit to 5.7% of GDP this year, 4.6% next year and 3%, the threshold set by the European treaties, in 2013. The government says the effort is to achieve additional savings of 4 billion this year and 10 billion next year. It is our view, far too optimistic. The magnitude of the austerity plan will have to be revised upwards.

And for good reason: the poor performance of the French economy in the second quarter, completely destroys the government's projections of 2% growth this year, which was built on his first budget proposal in 2012. After the 0 points of GDP growth between April and June, it would rise 0.7% of GDP in the third and fourth quarters to take this objective, a performance ever during the last decade. In other words mission impossible.

More than 30 billion euros in savings expected in 2012

Especially there is no reason to expect that the economy re-accelerates in year-end: the investigation of activity, Markit PMI and business climate of INSEE for the month of July, are even more alarming. Entrepreneurs morale in the socks. Their margins are low, production capacities are still under-utilized while the stock market meltdown currently affecting the French banks could lead to restrictions on credit terms.

Result: the investment projects are likely to remain in the bottom of the barrel. And not just in these circumstances, to expect pay increases or massive reflux of unemployment. Clearly, the two main drivers of growth hexagonal, investment and growth will remain depressed.With the global economic slowdown is expected to continue until the end of the year, including the Atlantic, it is certainly not foreign trade, which will take over to give a boost to the French business.

This is why the Centre does Prévisionsde Expansion table on 1.5% growth this year. Under these conditions, an increase of 2.25% of GDP in 2012, as planned by the government, becomes completely unrealistic. Indeed, it would mean that the French economy repeats his feat of the first quarter of 2011, that is to say 0.9% GDP growth over the four quarters of 2012. A feat never achieved since the war boom. The CPE does so more than 1% growth next year.

Impact on the budget debate: it is not 18 billion euros in 2012 it will find a commitment to meet commitments to reduce the deficit but more than 30 billion euros, 13 billion more than expected . And not 10 billion. Between exercise fiscal discipline to reassure financial markets and avoid alienating voters with too severe austerity measures in less than a year of presidential elections, the balance is more difficult than ever to find the government.

For the first time a French head of state has written to MPs and senators. In the letter, revealed by Le Figaro and parliamentarians should be today, Nicolas Sarkozy praised the decisions by the euro area to save Greece. "For over a year now, Greece is a crisis of exceptional severity. Beyond the fate of Greece for all of us is the future of the whole euro area is at stake, so our future and that of all Europe ", said the president.

"The summit held in Brussels on Thursday was a milestone. He first led to the adoption of a comprehensive and ambitious plan of support to Greece. This plan not only organizes relief essential to enable this country to continue to meet its deadlines, but also an effort to medium and long term to ease the burden of its debt and help restore its economy, "comments Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Head of State acknowledges, however, that beyond this progress and this progress, "the fundamental issue remains that of the governance of the euro area". On this subject, he said that Paris will work hand in hand with Berlin in order to provide to joint proposals "before the end of the summer."In this context of crisis, France has to be "exemplary in its reordering of its public accounts," the president, who believes that France must "continue to work to strengthen its competitiveness."

"In France, in the months ahead, we need to come together on these vital issues, beyond the partisan interests. The national representation do we stand for will, I am sure a major role in ensuring the direction of our common responsibility before history, "concluded the Head of State. A thinly veiled allusion to the famous "golden rule budget."

Under this name hides a reform bill that aims to include the requirement in the Constitution to limit government deficits and to bring balance the state budget. The Assembly and Senate have already voted in early July this text.But to amend the Constitution, a three-fifths majority of Parliament is required. Now the Socialists have already announced that he would vote against this bill.

Because "it's make an extremely serious matter, the recovery of public finances of France, a merely a politician, recently explained to the expansion. Com Michel Sapin, the Socialist Party national secretary for the economy. It a communication operation of a government that, since taking office, exploded the deficit. The aim is to the left in difficulty. We will not fall into the trap. "