Dive Summary:

• Free, the second-largest Internet access provider in France with about 5.2 million users, began allowing customers to block Web ads by default last week, and the move caught the interest of Google, as well as regulators.
• Google has yet to make an official statement, though smaller companies such as new publishers have reacted negatively, and a Google spokesman said that the search giant is "aware of Free's actions" and currently "investigating the impact."
• The New York Times reports that analysts said regulators would likely not allow such unilateral blocking to continue.

From the article:

"... Free’s shock to advertisers was widely seen as an attack on Google, and is part of the larger, global battle over the question of who should pay to deliver information on the Web — content providers or Internet service providers. An attempt to rewrite the rules failed at the December talks of the International Telecommunication Union in Dubai, after the United States and other nations objected to a proposal that, among other measures, would have required content providers to pay. ..."