France minister in Silicon Valley seeking allies

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The French minister of innovation and digital economy was in Silicon Valley on Wednesday to assure Internet giants that France sees them as allies, not enemies. Minister Fleur Pellerin’s visit came as France’s culture minister branded online retailer Amazon a “destroyer” of bookshops in the latest confrontation between the Socialist government in Paris and America’s giants of the digital economy. “We are absolutely not in a crusade against American companies or Americans,” Pellerin said during a press briefing Tuesday in San Francisco. “My purpose here is absolutely not to declare the war to America,” she said. “On the contrary, my purpose is to visit great tech companies and discuss with them the possibilities of partnerships and what synergies we can develop.” Pellerin is scheduled to meet Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg on Wednesday. Other spots on her agenda included Twitter, chip-maker Intel and Airbnb. She also said she would urge Google to channel more venture capital to France. “I really love America and think we have great things to do together,” Pellerin said. In France, Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti took aim at Seattle-based Amazon.com. “Everyone has had enough of Amazon, which, by dumping, slashes prices to get a foothold in markets only to raise them once they have established a virtual monopoly,” Filippetti said. “It is destructive for bookshops,” the minister said at a conference of booksellers in the southwestern city of Bordeaux. Filippetti said that she would be examining measures that could curb Amazon’s growth in France by restricting the company’s ability to combine offers of free deliveries with discounts of up to five percent on cover prices, which is the maximum allowed under legislation designed to protect small booksellers.