To combat the artificial increase in the price of tickets for shows, Act no. 2012-348 of 12 March 2012 to facilitate the organisation of sporting and cultural events created Article 313-6-2 of the Criminal Code. This article stipulates that selling or providing the means to sell tickets, regardless of the form or medium, "... shall be deemed to be a criminal offence. for a sporting, cultural or commercial event or a live performance, on a regular basis and without the authorisation of the producer, organiser or owner of the exploitation rights for this event or performance is punishable by a fine of €15,000.. "

It was on this basis that the Syndicat national des producteurs, diffuseurs, festivals et salles de spectacle musical et de variété (Prodiss) complained to Google about the presence on its search engine of advertisements or "Ads" for the sale of show tickets by sites not authorised by the producers. In the absence of a possible compromise solution, Prodiss took Google France and Google Ireland Ltd to the Paris Court of Justice to prevent the promotion of this illegal activity via the Google Ads service.

The Court of First Instance found that it was not " that by supplying this advertising to professionals [...] without authorisation [above], Google Ireland is liable to these producers or organisers". through the development of a harmful parallel market. It therefore ordered Google Ireland to make the purchase of the keywords "purchase (or sale), tickets (or tickets) and show (or concert)" on Google Ads, with a view to the publication of an advertisement aimed at the French public, subject to the provision of written authorisation from the producer concerned by the advertisement. The injunction was accompanied by a fine of €1,000 for each advertisement placed by an unauthorised person, applicable on expiry of a period of one month following service of the decision.

In addition, the Court found that the show production and organisation companies had suffered image damage that should be compensated, but as this damage was not equivalent to the profits generated by the Google Ads activity, it was estimated at €40,000.

To read the judgment