PARIS: France’s competition regulator on Tuesday (13th of July, 2021) slapped Google with a 500-million-euro ($593-million) fine for failing to negotiate “in good faith” with media companies over the use of their content under EU copyright rules.
In a ruling published on its website, the Competition Authority also ordered Google to present media publishers with “an offer of remuneration for the current use of their copyrighted content”, or risk paying additional damages of up to 900,000 euros a day.

It is pertinent to mention that France’s competition regulator said on Friday (9th of July, 2021) that it would issue a ruling on 13th of July on whether Google was negotiating “in good faith” with news publishers over payments for using their content alongside search results.
The long-running legal battle centres on claims that the US internet giant is showing articles, pictures and videos produced by media groups when displaying search results, without adequate compensation despite the seismic shift of advertising revenue online.
In April 2020, France’s competition authority ordered Google to negotiate “in good faith” with media groups, after it refused to comply with a new EU law governing digital copyrights.
The so-called “neighboring rights” aim to ensure that news publishers are compensated when their work is shown on websites, search engines and social media platforms.
But last September, news publishers including Agence France-Presse (AFP) filed a complaint with regulators, saying Google was refusing to more forward on paying to display content in web searches.
The competition authority will rule on this point, before issuing a final ruling later this year on Google’s alleged abuse of monopoly power in internet news searches.
News outlets struggling with dwindling print subscriptions have long seethed at Google’s refusal to give them a cut of the millions of euros it makes from ads displayed alongside news search results.

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