The antitrust regulator in France has fined the tech giant Google around $593 million and has given the company two months to come up with proposals on how to pay publishers for their content or face more punishment.
In a statement, the regulator said that Google had disregarded several injunctions related to the tech company’s negotiations with French news publishers. Isabelle de Silva, Chief of Antitrust Agency, said: “When the regulator imposes obligations for a company, it must comply scrupulously, in both the spirit and letter. In this instance, this was unfortunately not the case.”
France’s Competition Authority said that Google had breached an April 2020 ruling that ordered the company to negotiate “in good faith” licensing deals with publishers and news agencies for any reuse of copyrighted content.
The tech giant has been fined €500 million ($593 million) over its failure to comply. If the search giant does not present compensation offers to publishers within the next two months, it faces additional penalties of up to €900,000 ($1.1 million) per day.
It is the largest-ever fine imposed by France’s competition watchdog for a company’s failure to adhere to one of its rulings. It’s the latest development in an ongoing copyright battle between tech giants like Google and Facebook and news publishers.
Google said that it was “very disappointed” by Tuesday’s decision. The spokesperson for the company added: “We have acted in good faith throughout the entire process. The fine ignores our efforts to reach an agreement and the reality of how news works on our platforms. To date, Google is the only company to have announced agreements on neighboring rights. We are also about to finalize an agreement with AFP that includes a global licensing agreement, as well as the remuneration of their neighboring rights for their press publications.”
Earlier this year, in January, Google agreed to a major digital copyright deal with French publishers. As part of that deal, it would negotiate individual licenses with members of France’s press alliance for rights and access to a new service called News Showcase.
However, France’s competition agency took issue with this, saying it did not include a discussion on remuneration for current uses of content covered by “neighboring rights” for the press. It also added that Google restricted the scope of talks with the media by refusing to include the use of press images.
The European Union had overhauled its copyright laws in 2019, making platforms responsible for copyright infringements committed by their users. The new rules also require search engines and social media platforms to share revenue with publishers if their content is displayed.
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