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.
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.