Google has been hit with a €500m (£427m) fine by France’s competition authority.
The authority accused Google of not taking an order to do so seriously. By competition authority. Google told the BBC the decision “ignores our efforts to reach an agreement”. The fine is the latest skirmish in a global copyright battle between tech firms and news organizations.
Last year, the French competition authority ordered that Google must negotiate deals with news organizations to show extracts of articles in search results, news and other services.
It is said Google was fined because, in the authority’s view, it failed to do this. In 2019, France became the first EU country to put a new Digital Copyright Directive into law.
It is said the law governed so-called “neighbouring rights” which are designed to compensate publishers, news agencies for use of their material.
As a result, Google decided it would not show content from EU publishers in France. On services like search and news, unless publishers agreed to let them do so free of charge.
The US tech giant has agreed to make it easier for publishers to use its data and tools. “We will be testing and developing these changes over the coming months before rolling them out, including some globally,” the company said.
It is not the first time the company, owned by Alphabet. Slapped with heavy fines for falling foul of European advertising rules.
The watchdog said Google Ad Manager provided AdX with strategic data such as the winning bidding prices. While AdX enjoyed privileged access made by advertisers via Google’s ad services.
The French authority launched its investigation in 2019 following a joint complaint. French news publishing group Le Figaro and Belgian press group Rossel.
It said its decision opens the way for publishers who felt disadvantaged to seek damages from Google.