So then I suppose Google should have just given in to the Chinese government's demands for censorship, or the US government's demands for access to private data?
I don't agree with either of those things, but there is a point at which globalisation comes into conflict with sovereign nations.
The status of a company is one that is granted to it by a sovereign country, and sovereign countries establish through their legal and government systems how companies can act within their borders.
Once you're there... yes, Google should comply to any legal request. And in fact, they do... as requests for data issued under legal order are in fact complied with.
Companies are not above the law (and laws tend to exist at country level or through treaty across many countries). And if the law of a country says pay, then Google need to pay unless another law can trump it and says not to pay.
There's no two ways about it, companies must comply with the laws of whatever land they operate in.
There exist laws so hideous and offensive to human dignity, that they should never be obeyed.
EDITED: I am not talking about the google privacy case specifically, previous posts in this thread had widened the scope beyond this point.
The problem that is that companies are not above the law, but they are even less above ethics. The primary reason that we argue that companies should follow the law is ethics and when ethics and the law are in conflict ethics always trumps the law.
Let's worry about the morals and ethics of operating that munitions factory before we get concerned with "unjust" laws.
I'm not even saying this necessarily applies to this exact situation - maybe the laws in France that Google was in violation of are good laws, in which case hopefully Google loses its appeal.
It's just ridiculous to say that companies should always just do whatever government tells them to do without question.
In this case, having google comply to the most restrictive law of the countries they are operating in would benefit the rest of the world. They are not asked to come to work naked. They are asked to explain their users who will be able to know of their secret homosexuality or the brand of their car.
Since "just stop doing business there" often isn't a realistic option for most businesses, big or small, you do what you can to work within the law while attempting to retain what seems to you a reasonable standard of ethics. That's a very gray position, but that's how the world is.
When politics and legislation are ideal and unchanging, then you can expect corporations to consistently comply with all laws in all places. Until then, it's unreasonable to make statements like this. It is, of course, your right to do so; just don't make the mistake of believing it reflects how business and government actually work.