Google fined $593 mn by French antitrust agency over news content issue

Google ignored a 2020 decision to negotiate in good faith for displaying snippets of articles on its Google News service

Google was fined 500 million euros ($593 million) in France after the search giant failed to follow an order to thrash out a fair deal with publishers to use their news content on its platform.

The Alphabet Inc. unit ignored a 2020 decision to negotiate in good faith for displaying snippets of articles on its Google News service, the Autorité de la concurrence said Tuesday. The fine is the second-biggest antitrust penalty in France for a single company.

France isn’t alone in trying to hold tech giants to account over their use of news. Australia earlier this year required digital firms like Facebook and Google to pay local publishers for news. Google has been increasingly paying publishers but on its own terms, with a $1 billion Google News Showcase to point readers to news content.

The company is facing a global onslaught as regulators across the world sharpen scrutiny of the world’s largest tech firms, looking at its advertising business, apps and search. In Russia Google is seeking an out-of-court settlement after a court ruling it must unblock the YouTube account of a TV channel owned by a U.S.-sanctioned backer of President Vladimir Putin.

“The sanction of 500 million euros takes into account the exceptional seriousness of the breaches observed,” said Isabelle de Silva, president of the French agency.

Google is “very disappointed” with the decision and considers it “acted in good faith throughout the entire process,” a spokesperson said. Google added that it’s about to reach an agreement with Agence France-Presse that included a global licensing agreement. Google can appeal Tuesday’s penalty announcement.

The confrontation between Google and newspaper owners and wire services has been a long time coming. European publishers have been pushing regulators for over a decade to tackle the power of Google, which has lured away billions of euros in advertising revenue. Complaints were lodged in France in 2019 by groupings representing newspapers and magazines as well as Agence France-Presse.

Tuesday’s fine is the latest show of strength by the French regulator as it vies with its EU and German counterparts to be the region’s toughest watchdog of US tech firms. In recent years, the authority has tended to order behavioural changes before the end of probes, which can drag on for years. While this has spurred other antitrust agencies to emulate the tactic, Google’s defiance risked jeopardising it.

Earlier this year, Google reached a deal to remunerate a grouping of French newspapers — Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale. There have also been talks with magazine owners and AFP.

But de Silva said that regulators dismissed the remuneration offered by Google as “negligible.” She criticised the tech giant for offering to pay the same amount for press content than it did for dictionary listings or weather information. 
 

Google fails to strike

* Fine is the second biggest French antitrust penalty so far

* Regulator says company violated orders to negotiate with publishers for right to show snippets of content in search results

* Google has two months to come up with fresh ideas for compensating news publishers or risks further fines of up to 900,000 euros, about $1.065 million, per day, the French authorities said

* The Competition Authority also ordered Google to present media publishers with "an offer of remuneration for the current use of their copyrighted content"

* Google was ordered to present an offer of remuneration to publishers within two months, or risk facing fines of up to 900,000 euros per day