French regulators said on Wednesday that they were imposing a 250 million euro ($272 million) fine on Google for violating a pact on compensating media companies for using their content online.
The Competition Authority of France stated that the fine was due to Google not fulfilling its promises from 2022 and accused it of not engaging in sincere negotiations with news publishers regarding compensation for their content.
Google and other online platforms have been accused of profiting heavily from news content without sharing the earnings with the creators.
To address this issue, the EU established a type of copyright called “neighbouring rights,” which allows print media to request payment for the use of their content.
France is seen as a testing ground for these regulations, and despite initial resistance, both Google and Facebook eventually agreed to compensate some French media for articles displayed in web searches.
In 2022, French regulators accepted commitments from Google to conduct fair negotiations with news organizations.
As part of the agreement, the US tech giant is required to present news groups with a clear payment proposal within three months of receiving a copyright complaint.
Associations representing French magazines and newspapers, along with Agence France-Presse (AFP), had filed a complaint with the regulator in 2019.
Google vigorously opposed the concept of paying for content, and in 2021 it was fined 500 million euros ($530 million) for failing to negotiate in good faith.
AFP
