France hits Google with €500m fine in news copyright row
The French competition watchdog has hit Google with a €500m (£427m) fine for failing to comply fully with temporary orders handed down in a copyright row with news publishers.
News outlets including Agence France-Presse (AFP) accused the tech giant of failing to open talks “in good faith” to reach an agreement on remuneration for online news content under a recent EU directive.
The regulator had issued a temporary order demanding that such talks took place within three months with any publisher that asked for them.
It today sided with the publishers and handed down the fine to Google for breaching the order.
The platform must come up with proposals for how it will compensate news organisations for the use of their news within the next two months.
If it fails to do so it would face additional fines of up to €900,000 per day.
Trade body APIG, which represents major print news publishers such as Le Figaro and Le Monde, remains one of the plaintiffs despite having signed a framework agreement with Google, since it has been put on hold pending antitrust decision, sources told Reuters.
Google said it was “very disappointed” by the regulator’s decision, adding that it “ignores our efforts to reach an agreement and the reality of how news works on our platform”.