France Fines Google Record $593M Over News Copyright Battle

The French Competition Authority has fined Google a record $593 million (500 million euros) for not negotiating in good faith with news publishers....
France Fines Google Record $593M Over News Copyright Battle
Written by Matt Milano
  • The French Competition Authority has fined Google a record $593 million (500 million euros) for not negotiating in good faith with news publishers.

    Google has a long history of not paying news publishers for the content it uses. The company has maintained that publishers receive far more benefit than it does from the arrangement, a point that many news publishers and regulators have increasingly pushed back against. Google has been changing its stance, but that hasn’t been enough to stop regulatory scrutiny.

    According to NBC News, France’s Autorité de la concurrence has now fined Google a whopping $593 million for not abiding by an April 2020 ruling ordering the company to negotiate “in good faith” with news publishers. The Authority took issue with Google not discussing remuneration for content covered by “neighboring rights,” as well as for not including press image usage.

    To make matters even worse for the search giant, the Authority has ordered Google to come up with a remuneration offer for publishers’ protected content within two months. Should the company fail to do so, it will be fined up to 900,000 euros a day.

    The decision follows another fine of $267 million a month ago by the Authority over Google favoring its own advertising services over competitors’.

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