The invoice is salted for five hypermarkets Carrefour and Leclerc. The latter were sentenced Friday by the criminal court of Rouen to pay 140,000 euros in fines for "deceptive marketing practices."

The court points to operations such as "buy four, one free" or "20% free" set up on certain products. After controls, the investigators of the Departmental Direction of protecting the population of Seine-Maritime realized that these operations were unfavorable to consumers. The latter indeed paid these products more expensive than had they purchased individually. Similarly, the comparison price in the store were found. Result: Three of the Carrefour stores will have to pay 100,000 euros while two stores Leclerc pay 30,000 and 10,000 euros respectively cheapest personal loan rates.  

The stores are doing better than what the prosecutor of the Republic, Maela Guéguen, had addressed, namely a total of 190,000 euros in fines. The lawyers had demanded the release distributors to their customers because they believe these development operations were performed by providers who decided the proportion of free and conditioned themselves the product. For its part, the association UFC-Que Choisir, who received 2000 euros in damages, a judgment that recognizes hello "fraud and false advertising," according to his lawyer Catherine Kersual.

(With Agents)

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The output of the Kindle Fire turns to the correction for all other manufacturers of Android tablets. In February, just four months after its release, the tablet from Amazon in the U.S. represented over half of the market (54.4%), excluding iPad, according to data from comScore Institute released Thursday. His closest competitor was the Galaxy Tab by Samsung, whose share decreased from 23.8% to 15.4% in three months. Other models, such as Motorola Xoom, Asus and Toshiba AT100 Transformer, got only the crumbs.

These data, comScore estimated by using the number of tablets that connect to the Internet every month, have not been confirmed by Amazon. As usual, the maker of the Kindle Fire refuses to give precise sales figures, even if the indicators that are favorable to accumulate. His tablet is "being the best selling, most available and most desired" by customers on Amazon.com, he simply has to announce in the press release accompanying the publication of its quarterly results Thursday.

The excellent launch of Kindle Fire in the United States, the only country where it is sold to date, shows that the market shelves can extend far beyond the iPad. With its 7-inch screen diagonal (17.8 centimeters), its list of functions reduced to essentials (no 3G, no camera, no accelerometer), the Kindle is sold only Fire $ 199, two times less than the first iPad. At the point where we now ready to Apple intends to expand in this segment, by launching an iPad smaller and cheaper.

"Google has lost control of Android tablets"

Hollow, the success of the Kindle Fire also highlights the poor performance of other Android tablets before. Apple sold 35 million iPad last year, against 5,000,000 in 2011 for Samsung, its nearest competitor. The arrival of Amazon is not necessarily good news for Google. Fire Aboard The Kindle indeed deeply modified version of the Android system. "It's official: Google has lost control of the market for Android tablets," headlined the Thursday specialized site Business Insider.

For Amazon, this strategy is paying anyway. As there is already reached in the Kindle eBooks with classical Kindle Fire means it can sell more content in digital format, including films and television series. "Customers buy a lot of content, is seen particularly in North America with sales of cultural goods between the fourth and first quarter which is accelerating," explains the chief financial officer, Tom Szkutak.

Throughout the quarter, according to figures released Thursday, sales of cultural goods on Amazon increased 19% to $ 4.71 billion, while sales of other goods and electronics surged 43 % to 7.97 billion. The good surprise came from the profit, down 35% over the same period last year (130 million), but well above analysts' expectations. Friday, the action progressed over 15% at the opening of the NYSE.

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This is the story of an Alsatian deputy mayor, Eric Straumann, who, wishing to save a supermarket brand of monumental and illegal blocks all the mayors of France who want to limit the display advertising in their municipality. Summoned by the prefect to remove the acronym which stands Cora to 17 meters above the campaign Husain (1600 inhabitants), the elected UMP has decided to amend the second law of the Grenelle del'environnement on the billboard said "outside business card templates." Include: large panels and signs disfiguring number of entries in cities.

"I have a large area with a large sign that does not bother anyone,

The sign of Cora Hussen.

Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria, foreign affairs, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, through the CEO of Repsol, Antonio Brufau is a general mobilization in Madrid. Since the announcement Monday night from the expropriation of the group YPF, Repsol's subsidiary in Argentina, the Spanish government officials and oil company's succession of television sets in press conferences to express their anger.

Because even if it concerns also international investors, largely present in the capital of Repsol YPF, the coup of President Cristina Kirchner is lived in Madrid as an affront to the country. "A decision against the interests of Spain and Spaniards," says Soria. It must be said that YPF is the crown jewel of Repsol. The Argentine subsidiary to the parent provides half of the production of hydrocarbons (or 459,000 barrels per day), 40% of its reserves and a third of its gross profit. Repsol, the coup, wants to pay a high price Buenos Aires: Antonio Brufau requires 8 billion euros in compensation for the 57.4% stake in Spanish oil YPF.

"A very bad signal"

For now, Spain brandished the threat of retaliation, without elaborating. Minister Soria evokes "the consequences of different fields: diplomatic, commercial, and industrial energy." Europe is united with Madrid. The head of European diplomacy, Catherine Ashton, denounces "a very bad signal" sent by Argentina to foreign investors and warned that Brussels is studying all options instant payday loan.

Beyond the rhetorical threats, what are the real possibilities of retaliation? Specifically, Madrid remains an important outlet for Buenos Aires. Spain imports twice what it exports to Argentina. In 2011, Spaniards bought 2.01 billion euros of products to Argentina and that they have sold 1 billion. Chemicals, raw materials, intermediate products as well as fruits, vegetables, fish and seafood are among the goods most in demand in Spain.

"Legal uncertainty" in Argentina

Repsol also is not the only company of Spanish origin present in Argentina. In energy, construction and banks, the Spanish groups have settled in Buenos Aires and the rest of the country. Gas Natural has reached such an EBITDA of 27 million euros last year. Santander and BBVA, the two giants of Spanish bank, achieved respectively 5.36% and 5.22% of their net profits in Argentina. Telefonica de Argentina, finally, achieved a turnover of more than 3 billion euros, thanks to its 24,000 employees in Argentina.

For now, the 400 Spanish companies are located low profile. Spanish executives point out, the image of Gas Natural, "the excellent relations with the Argentine government." But on condition of anonymity, officials complain in the Spanish press of the "legal uncertainty" that takes place in Argentina.

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Nicolas Sarkozy Knights principle of rent. Asked about the German model in this regard, the president candidate is that this is "a good idea." "I take it back. It does not block the rent but a framework. This is why it is interesting. I will apply, "he vowed in an interview published Monday in Current Woman.

In the mouth of the president candidate, unless the idea is new in that it looks. On 2 February, he said already "think" in a measure inspired by the German model. Across the Rhine, a tenant can attack the homeowner if the rent is 20% higher than the market price. The entourage of Nicolas Sarkozy said he had not yet decided the question whether, in France, the initiative would be left to the tenant as in Germany or if the 20% ceiling would be required automatically to owners.

At the campaign headquarters of Nicolas Sarkozy, it ensures that the President-candidate has not changed sides. Is depressed and the socialist proposal: "This is a measure similar to the 1948 Act (the rent freeze) and it is not the German system," argued an associate of the president candidate quoted by Reuters. "What is a priority for us is not to discourage the development of housing supply, that would surely cause a rent freeze," he added.

"Everything and its opposite"

Francois Hollande camp was quick to qualify this statement of complete reversal. "On housing, Nicolas Sarkozy has said anything and everything in five years. After the 'all owners' roadmap of its policy since 2007, he rediscovered that there are tenants in France, they pay rents too expensive and they live badly, "reacted Repentin Thierry, head of the pole housing and urban policy team of the socialist candidate.

The program promises Francois Hollande "by law to oversee the amounts of rent for the first rental or relocation" in areas where prices are "excessive." But little else. Prices are set by local observatories rents and leases new concern. Especially, the measure would be "transitory", until the market relaxes, explains Thierry Repentin in the newspaper Le Monde on Saturday.

Friday, the benchmark rents (IRL) has increased by 2.24% yoy in the first quarter 2012, slightly less than inflation (2.3% yoy in March). Homeowners can increase to the same extent the rents of their tenants during the lease. However, the Observatory Clamor noted a slight drop in rents charged to new tenants (-0.1%).

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Its facade that gives pride to the larch and its roof like helium-filled, the shopping center that opened Wednesday in Lyon in the new district of Confluence is not like normal plants for sale. Nevertheless, this shopping venue which has 102 stores spread across 53,000 square meters will have to meet quite a challenge. Prove that at the merchant web booming and consumption lowered, the formula is not exceeded. Find its place in a commercial landscape Lyon already quite saturated with 267 shops including La Part Dieu and 85 stores in Ecully fifteen minutes by car. Show that a new center can succeed while the latest openings, especially the Millennium in Paris in 2011 – are not successful.  

To top it off, the latest Unibail is located in a brand new neighborhood with 10,000 new residents already … but where Lyonnais have not yet used to come. A context that does not prevent Guillaume Poitrinal, CEO of Unibail to found great hopes on Confluence. "After three or four years, this center should achieve a turnover of 200 to 250 million with seven to eight million visitors," said he. For comparison, the center of Nice Cap 3000, considered one of the most efficient outside the Paris region reached 450 million euros in annual sales.

Apple Store in gondola

To take his bet, Unibail, which is the leading commercial centers in Europe, here applies the recipe that made its success elsewhere. A large dose of strings prevalent but unavoidable (Zara, Etam, C & A, Grand Optical, Franck Provost …), a pinch of signs that create events (Apple Store, Hollister, California clothing brand of Abercrombie & Fitch) and several newcomers in France and the Spanish brand apparel SuiteBlanco Specialist Portuguese decoration Loja do Gato Preto guaranteed online personal loans. In addition, it adds some local brands such as qualitative Cellerier catering, library Decitre Galix or shoemaker. Obviously, there are a hypermarket (Carrefour one) but small (4500 m). However, there is no distributor of home appliances or TV-type brown goods and computers. No trace either of stores that sell CDs or DVDs. "It's a choice: Today, consumers buy these products online," said Romain-Lavignie Molho, director of the Lyon Confluence.  

Instead, Unibail has developed the leisure part: the second floor is a multiplex with 14 theaters but also a climbing wall, spa and restaurant offers a larger than usual. Of fast food like McDonald's, Starbucks coffee as well as the more upscale chains such as Italian or American Fuxia Razowski. Moreover, to make shopping more enjoyable, Unibail has treated the architecture of the place. Part of the center is open air, in the other part, the transparent roof lets plenty of light, and in public areas, natural ventilation avoids air conditioning, inconsistent with the principles of sustainable development . An approach designed by architect Jean-Paul Viguier, known for directing Heart Defense, the largest office complex in Europe, located in the business district. The coming months will tell whether these efforts will restore the taste of consumers to buy badly shaken by the crisis.

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Two figures sum up the vise where is Spain: 27.3 billion euros to make cuts in the 2012 budget, equivalent to about the burden of Spanish debt this year, namely 28.8 billion. The "most austere budget of democracy", according to Minister of Finance, is primarily designed to reward creditors, to recover "trust" markets. Since the presentation of the general budget last Friday, the heavyweights of government do not hide their discomfort. "The situation is limited," says the finance minister, Cristobal Montoro, while the public debt of Spain will increase from 68.5% of GDP in 2011 to 79.8% in 2012, its highest level for twenty -two years.

A lose-lose situation

The leader of the Conservative government, Mariano Rajoy, has been a little further on Monday during a speech to executives of his party. "If you do not pay back, nobody's ready again. It is not an academic exercise. Everyone knows what happened to some members of the European Union. For that one you must finance that we have confidence in you, in your ability to repay. This is what concerns us. "The allusion to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, within the scope of a plan to help Europe and the IMF, is barely concealed.

The Minister of Economy Luis de Guindos, drove the nail in an article published Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal. "From a fiscal perspective, the government faces a lose-lose situation. If you do not reduce the budget enough, the markets penalize you. But if you go too far, markets can also penalize you, "he said.

Reform of labor law applied

The dangers of austerity needed to restore the credibility of the accounts, but perilous for growth, are denounced by long-time economists. No minister, however, had also clearly expressed his dismay at this square the circle.

The government is now ready to laying bare the gravity of the situation. It is to accept unprecedented budget cuts, while unemployment continues to rise: 39,000 people lost their jobs in March, the first month of implementation of the reform of labor law, revealed Tuesday that the services of employment. A perilous exercise, the same day that unemployment figures are published, the executive announced that the funding policy for employment is reduced by 21.3%.

From the details of the budget presented Tuesday, the departments will have their expenses down 16.9% on average. A figure that masks important disparities. Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, for example, will accept reduced funding by 43.6%. At the other end of the chain, the Interior Ministry's efforts will be limited to 4.3%. Montoro said Tuesday its three priorities: "the deficit, the deficit and the deficit." Growth, she will wait.

Portugal: no second rescue, said Brussels

The reforms adopted by Portugal to consolidate its public finances are on track and the country should be able to borrow again in the markets in 2013, as planned, said Tuesday the Commission européenne.Le Portugal benefited from a bailout of 78 billion euros over three years allowed by the EU and the International Monetary Fund after seeing its rate bonds climb to an unsustainable level of debt for the country, whose growth is affected by a low competitiveness. This aid package was not fully reassured investors, some fearing that Lisbon does not follow the way of Greece requesting a new bailout that could mean losses for creditors of the private sector.

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If the timing of the IPO Facebook is still not known, investors are in turmoil. And gendarmes stock alert. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the authority of U.S. financial markets, has struck a major blow this week by denouncing irregularities in the market called "pre-IPO" or pre-IPO. She has filed suit Wednesday against SharesPost, a leading specialized platforms in exchange for shares of unlisted companies, like Facebook or Twitter. His main mistake "of having effected transactions in securities without being registered in advance with the regulators as a brokerage." Clearly, the operations were carried out in a strictly regulated market.

Finally, the SEC and the founder of SharesPost, Greg Brogger, reached an agreement. The company must pay a fine of $ 80,000, and its founder will pay $ 20,000 bonus. In addition, SharesPost acquired a brokerage, which allowed him to register with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), another regulatory body. The SEC announced parallel lawsuits against two managers of private funds – Felix Investments and Free Facie Management Associates – "created solely to acquire shares of Facebook and other Silicon Valley companies, deceiving investors and pocketing commissions unspecified ". The managers of these two companies have sold securities to Facebook prices up to 66 dollars per share, nearly twice the rate at which they had got hold of it, denounces the regulator.  

Gamble "even for sophisticated investors"

"While we applaud innovation in financial markets, new platforms and new products must obey the laws and ensuring fairness and transparency are the basic mark of a good financial regulation", argued a officials of the SEC, Robert Khuzami, said in a statement payday loans. This is a very sensitive issue because Facebook is trading on a gray market with a valuation of nearly $ 98 billion! However, in the first approach, the experts were hoping for a stock of Figaro valuation of approximately $ 75 billion. Finally, it should rather be on the order of $ 100 billion, they say.

The issue of pre-IPO market is considerable, at a time when the SEC ensures restore investor confidence. "When you do not trust your neighbors are happy to see that there are police on the streets," said Max Wolff, in charge of research on the secondary market at GreenCrest Capital in New York, in the columns World. SharesPost and SecondMarket platforms are best known on the secondary market. A market that has allowed tens of thousands of wealthy investors to take their share of companies very popular, as were also Zynga or Groupon before their IPO. Caution, however, not to lose feathers, warns Marc Fagel, director of the SEC office in San Francisco, said in the statement: "This secondary market (…) is dangerous even for sophisticated investors."

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The German Cabinet Wednesday approved the European fiscal pact signed by EU leaders last week. But this is only the beginning of a new showdown to Angela Merkel. For the Chancellor must obtain a two thirds majority in the German Parliament to ratify the treaty, which induces a change in the fundamental law, the Constitution. And the opposition, whose votes will be required by, has already set his conditions to his joining in a letter to the government.

The Social Democrats, like the Greens, calling for the inclusion in the pact of measures to promote growth and employment, and conditions approves the introduction of a tax on financial transactions at least in the eurozone.

Was a hard blow to the Chancellor: his liberal coalition partners oppose wind at both. As for the ratification of the second aid package to Greece in February, his own most risk of it failing again. Disavowal of a new politically weaken to the point of projecting his center-right coalition on the verge of bursting.

The opposition does not hide his satisfaction. "The Chancellor is committed in a losing battle. She was eleven weeks of exciting domestic politics before it! ", Says Thomas Opperman, one of the leaders of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

Godsend for Holland

The Bundestag must ratify the text at first reading in late May, before it is finally adopted, always in the Bundestag, three weeks later. However, the opposition did not rein as frank as it wants in negotiations. Because it can ill afford to vote no to a deal supported by an overwhelming majority of Germans thrilled to see the Germanic discipline imposed on the rest of the euro area. Moreover, early elections would focus again Merkel at the chancellery under all the polls.

Inspired by Berlin, the fiscal pact, which comes into force on 1 January 2013, commits the 25 countries of the European Union signatories (of 27) to more fiscal discipline. It generalizes the "golden rule" which requires states to balance the budget. Pillar of the new European economic governance, this text is seen as the essential counterpart to the German financial solidarity towards the most vulnerable countries.

Embarrassing for Angela Merkel, the conditions imposed by the German opposition to ratification of the treaty are a boon to Francois Hollande, who has promised to renegotiate the pact if elected president. But the rallying of the German Social Democrats stops there. The views of the French Socialists on the role of the European Central Bank continue to arouse the greatest suspicion to the SPD.

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