Google fined €500m by French competition authorityon July 13, 2021 at 11:17 am

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

The search giant must propose ways to compensate news businesses for the use of their content.

Illustration of Google and the EU flag

image copyrightGetty Images

Google has been hit with a €500m (£427m) fine by France’s competition authority for failing to negotiate “in good faith” with news organisations over the use of their content.

The authority accused Google of not taking an order to do so seriously.

Google told the BBC the decision “ignores our efforts to reach an agreement”.

The fine is the latest skirmish in a global copyright battle between tech firms and news organisations.

Last year, the French competition authority ordered that Google must negotiate deals with news organisations to show extracts of articles in search results, news and other services.

Google was fined because, in the authority’s view, it failed to do this.

In 2019, France became the first EU country to transpose a new Digital Copyright Directive into law.

The law governed so-called “neighbouring rights” which are designed to compensate publishers and news agencies for the use of their material.

As a result, Google decided it would not show content from EU publishers in France, on services like search and news, unless publishers agreed to let them do so free of charge.

News organisations felt this was an abuse of Google’s market power, and two organisations representing press publishers and Agence France-Presse (AFP) complained to the competition authority.

Google told the BBC: “We are very disappointed with this decision – we have acted in good faith throughout the entire process.”

It said that it is, to date, the only company to have announced agreements on so-called neighbouring rights.

It added it was about to finalise an agreement with AFP that includes a global licensing agreement and payments for press publications.

The new ruling means that within the next two months Google must come up with proposals explaining how it will recompense companies for the use of their news.

Should this fail to happen the company could face additional fines of €900,000 per day.

“When the authority decrees an obligation for a company, it must comply scrupulously,” said the competition authority’s Isabelle de Silva in a statement.

“Here, this was unfortunately not the case,” she wrote.

- Advertisement -

Discover

Sponsor

Latest

What to Do When You’ve Fallen in Love With Oprah?

What to Do When You've Fallen in Love With Oprah?I recently met the man who made Oprah's voice heard in ways we hadn't...

Deplorable scam emails fake fundraising for Ukraineon March 23, 2022 at 10:30 am

Action Fraud warns of fake emails asking for donations to victims of the war.

Opinion: Russia is the world’s biggest loser from oil’s crash, and that’s reason to worry

Karl Marx wrote that “history repeats itself twice, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce.” The collapse of the Soviet...

Queen under medical supervision at Balmoralon September 8, 2022 at 4:25 pm

Prince Charles is there with his son Prince William and other senior royals.Image source, EPAThe Queen is under medical supervision at Balmoral after doctors...

Jeremy Renner: Avengers star ‘critical but stable’ in hospital after snow plough accidenton January 2, 2023 at 9:29 am

The Marvel actor was airlifted to hospital from his home near Reno, Nevada on Sunday.Image source, Getty ImagesBy Emma SaundersEntertainment reporterMarvel actor Jeremy Renner...