The French antitrust regulator imposed a 500 million euro (428 million pounds) fine on Google for failing to comply with the regulator’s order on how to conduct continuous negotiations with the country’s news publishers on copyright issues.
Fines are imposed internationally on online platforms (e.g. Google Share more income with Facebook and the news media.
The American technology group must make recommendations on how to compensate news organizations and other publishers for news use within the next two months. If it fails to do so, the company will face an additional fine of up to 900,000 euros per day.
Google said it was very disappointed with this decision, but will abide by it. “Our goal remains the same: we want to turn the page with a clear agreement. We will consider the feedback from the French Competition Authority and adjust our offer,” the American technology company said.
A Google spokesperson added: “We acted in good faith throughout the process. The fines ignore our efforts to reach an agreement and the way news works on our platform.”
News publishers APIG, SEPM and AFP accused the technology company of failing to negotiate in good faith with them to create so-called “neighboring rights” under the recent EU directives to find common ground for online news content remuneration.
The focus of the case itself is whether Google has violated an interim order issued by the antitrust agency, which requires such negotiations with any news publisher that requires negotiations within three months.
“When the authorities set the company’s obligations, it must strictly comply with (the spirit and text of the decision). Unfortunately, this is not the case,” said Isabel de Silva, the head of the antitrust agency, in a statement. She also said that regulators believe that Google did not act in good faith in its negotiations with publishers.
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Sources told Reuters that APIG represents most of the major French print press publishers including Le Figaro and Le Monde. Although it signed a framework agreement with Google earlier this year, it is still One of the plaintiffs. The source said that the framework transaction has been shelved, awaiting an antitrust ruling.
The framework agreement criticized by many other French media is one of the most high-profile deals under the Google News Showcase program, which provides compensation for news snippets used in search results, and is the first of its kind. Europe.
According to documents seen by Reuters, Google agreed to pay $76 million to 121 French news publishers within three years to end copyright disputes.
