I'm confused; how does the geoIP block they implemented in Germany differ from the planned end of service for French users?

My question as well. I suspect they will update their terms of service to forbid use within France. Then anyone who uses their services from France will be in violation of the terms, which opens them up to legal penalties themselves.

Or perhaps they are just planning to physically withdraw any operating presence in France, so as to not have any facilities, equipment, or employees who are located in French jurisdiction.

But it wasn't clear from the article, unless I missed it.

Reply in separate thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50200111

I had the same question and read through it to get an answer but it is indeed not there :)

My guess is that they brought Germany example of doing GeoIP as the model they'll use but mostly noted as a fun quirk that even that solution received a weird challenge which they managed to fight off (at cost, though).

Obviously, it'd be nice to get a direct response from them as it is unclear.