French daily deal firm takes Google to task in France

IT IS A DAY of the week so it is only fitting that we have an anti-trust case to discuss, and this latest one involves Google and a French daily online deals firm called Deal du Jour.

Reuters reports that the French firm has complained about Google to EU anti-trust regulators and alleged that the internet search firm has removed it from its listings.

The reason for the alleged removal is unclear, but the complaint also says that Google blocked Deal du Jour from using Adsense, and calls the actions "clearly anticompetitive".

Is now the time to mention that Google recently purchased The Dealmap, an aggregator of daily deals? Perhaps it is.

"We ask the competition regulator to investigate Google as a matter of urgency because our small company is being destroyed by Google," Deal du Jour said in the complaint.

Google, perhaps well versed in this sort of thing, was ready with a statement and spokesman Al Verney told Reuters, "We haven't seen a new complaint, but our AdWords program has clear guidelines. We work to ensure these policies are easy to understand and continue to improve our customer service for advertisers."

Deal du Jour is not the only company to be complaining about the influence that Google allegedly uses on its already influential search listings, and joins ranks that include Microsoft. µ