Google France has been fined €500,000 by the local courts for offering their Google Maps service for free.

Apparently the courts are not amused that Google is killing the competition in the market by offering this service at no costs to the end user.

Google plans to appeal this decision because it does set a bad precedent. Google offers bulk of their services for free supported by online advertisement.

Today it’s Google Maps; tomorrow it could be Google Search or Gmail!