In the UK, Germany, and France the Internet has about double the influence of television when it comes to consumer decision making according to the Digital Influence Index, a study done by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive.

The study found that consumers use the Internet in a number of ways to make decisions. Consumers are more likely to seek opinions of others by visiting social media and product rating sites when making choices that have a major personal impact.

A Paris court has ordered eBay to pay $61 million (38.6 million euros) to luxury goods designer LVMH for allowing counterfeit merchandise to be sold on the auction site.

The decision comes about a month after a French court ordered eBay to pay $30,000 to luxury goods maker Hermes for its role in the sale of fake handbags.

eBay has been ordered by a French court to pay $30,000 to luxury goods designer Hermes for the company’s role in the sale of three counterfeit handbags.

The courts ruling was the first time a French judge found eBay directly accountable for the sale of counterfeit items by one of its customers. eBay maintains that it removes listings found to be fraudulent and argues that the liability for those listings is on the seller.

Hackers hit the Web site of a French magazine in an effort to influence an opinion poll about the Beijing Olympics and change the site’s content.

The Web site of business magazine Capital was first attacked in March, when it featured a poll asking if France should boycott the opening ceremony of the Games in China, according to publisher Jean-Joel Gurviez.

Five-time French presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right National Front party, is hoping to make some money by auctioning his old bulletproof car on eBay.

Le Pen, who was a surprise second in the 2002 French presidential election, put his party headquarters up for sale earlier this year after costly defeats in presidential and legislative elections last year left his party deeply in debt.

Even as YouTube’s revenue and CPMs get debated yet again, a new way in which the company could lose money has come up.  TF1, a French television network, has sued YouTube for 100 million.

The French National Assembly has adopted a bill that would make it illegal to promote anorexia through Web sites, magazines and in advertisements.

"Encouraging young girls to lie to their doctors, advising them on foods that are easier to regurgitate and inciting them to beat themselves up each time they eat is not freedom of expression," Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said in a speech in parliament.

The European Parliament shot down the proposal to ban file sharing by private individuals and dropped the idea to bar copyright abusers from the Internet.

In a close vote, 314 Members of the European Parliament voted to reject an amendment that would have protected copyright on the Internet and 297 voted against throwing out the amendment.

Over time, references to Quaero have become less and less frequent; it seemed that the French search project was more likely to fade from existence than challenge Google.  The European Commission has approved $152 million in state aid, however, so Mountain View might not want to forget about it.

A Web site in France that allowed students to anonymously rate and name their teachers has been ordered by a court to no longer allow the practice.

Teachers unions with the backing of the education ministry took the site to court, saying the personal comments were a breach of privacy and an "incitement to public disorder." The site note2be.com was created in January by French entrepreneurs, allowed students to rate and discuss their teacher’s abilities.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is receiving a lot of attention online for a video in which he tells a bystander to "get lost".

Sarkozy was filmed by a journalist from the newspaper Le Parisien while attending an annual farm fair in Paris on Saturday. Sarkozy went to shake a mans hand who in response said," Don’t touch me, you are soiling me." Sarkozy replied while still smiling," Get lost, dumb ass."

Online retailer Amazon.com will pay 1,000 euros ($1,500) a day in fines in order to offer free shipping in France while it appeals a December court ruling that made the practice illegal.

Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon, sent an email to customers of its French Web site stating Amazon will continue to offer free shipping while waiting for the outcome of the appeal.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has proposed banning advertising on public television and recovering some of the lost revenue by taxing the Internet and mobile phones.

Electronic voting machines are thought to be a way of saving money, but they often come with a hidden cost, according to a new report from the French Internet Rights Forum.

Free shipping is so nice – you know what you’re getting into from the start, with no surprises at the final checkout screen.  The French may see some last-minute additions to their book orders, however, as a court has ruled that Amazon.fr must charge for deliveries.

It is (I think) becoming public knowledge that Google has crushed all of its opponents in France – the company has a search market share of around ninety percent.  A new study is surprising, then, in that it reveals large similarities between the French versions of Google and Yahoo.

I’ve seen a lot of nationalities get insulted online, and no one seems to detect and respond to those insults as quickly as the French.  Now I know why: according to a new Forrester Research study, young French Internet users are more likely than just about anyone else in Europe to visit a blog.

Torrents and peer-to-peer networks have had a rough couple of weeks lately. In addition to Cox and Comcast’s recent blocking of torrent sites, file-sharing has been under assault in France and Canada, not to mention from billionaire Mark Cuban.

On the one hand, new data makes it surprising that Google doesn’t cater more to the French market.  On the other hand, perhaps the search giant doesn’t need to – in France, it already has a market share of almost 90 percent.

We’ve balked at France’s attempts to shortcut Google in the past, down right made fun of them for it. But the latest search share numbers in the Land of Baguettes and Snarls (gimme a break, had to get at least one in there) show that Google is near to surpassing the 90 percent threshold.

AOL France scored a deal with Neuf Cegetel to provide content, marketing, and advertising for its portal websites.