As the comments on the article point out, this seems to be about the enterprise maps service to businesses which ordinarily is at a cost.
From Le Monde[1]:
"As such, it considered that Google Maps distorted the rules of free competition by providing the same service to businesses while it undergoes costs to design the product."
["A ce titre, elle considérait que l'application Google Maps faussait les règles de la concurrence en offrant gratuitement aux entreprises le même service alors qu'elle-même subit des coûts pour concevoir son produit."]
The enterprise service FAQ[2] contains:
"Google Maps API for Business is extremely cost-effective, starting at just $10,000 per year. Pricing is based on the number of map page views for externally facing websites. For internal uses, it is based on page views or number of vehicles being tracked. Please contact us for more information."
I just wanted to change your translation (Google translate?) a bit. I think this is truer to the original French:
Hence they (Bottin Cartographes) considered that the Google Maps application broke competition rules by offering the same service to businesses for free, even though Google itself incurred costs to build the product."
From Le Monde[1]:
"As such, it considered that Google Maps distorted the rules of free competition by providing the same service to businesses while it undergoes costs to design the product."
["A ce titre, elle considérait que l'application Google Maps faussait les règles de la concurrence en offrant gratuitement aux entreprises le même service alors qu'elle-même subit des coûts pour concevoir son produit."]
The enterprise service FAQ[2] contains:
"Google Maps API for Business is extremely cost-effective, starting at just $10,000 per year. Pricing is based on the number of map page views for externally facing websites. For internal uses, it is based on page views or number of vehicles being tracked. Please contact us for more information."
Slightly changes the story.
[1]: http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2012/02/01/google...
[2]: http://www.google.com/enterprise/earthmaps/maps-faq.html