At the end of September last year, as it became known from the media, the police conducted searches in the French offices of Nvidia. Law enforcement officers were looking for evidence that would help them identify Nvidia’s abuses in terms of antitrust laws. Now the French authorities are not shy about admitting that Nvidia, if proven guilty, will have to answer according to the law and pay a fine.
Image source: NVIDIA
Benoit Couere, head of the French antitrust authority, confirmed in comments to Reuters that it is investigating Nvidia, and the company could be fined if the investigation comes to appropriate conclusions. In September, when searches were carried out at local Nvidia offices, French authorities tried not to comment on which company they suspected of what. It is generally accepted that French antitrust regulators have suspicions that Nvidia is abusing its position in the market for cloud computing components.
If it is proven that the company, through its behavior, unreasonably raises prices and oppresses smaller competitors, it will have to pay a large fine. The September searches were preceded by an analysis of the cloud systems market by one of the French government agencies. Until now, Nvidia representatives have not commented on this situation.