The American Internet company Google is said to pay a fine of 500 million euros to the press in France in the copyright dispute.
The antitrust authority in Paris announced on Tuesday that Google had failed to negotiate “in good faith” about individual license agreements with media companies.
It is the highest fine that the authority has ever imposed, said cartel office chief Isabelle De Silva.
Google said it was "very disappointed".
France's antitrust watchdogs committed Google to negotiations with publishers and press agencies in April last year. This is about remuneration for displaying copyrighted media content, as provided for in the EU copyright amendment of 2019. Specifically, it is about news, photos and videos from media that are displayed on Google or YouTube. The media companies argue that Google earns money with its content through advertising, but does not pay usage fees.
In September media companies, including the AFP news agency, lodged a complaint against Google with the antitrust authorities because the internet company did not negotiate with the will to find a fair deal. The antitrust authority explained on Tuesday that Google, for example, had not had a “separate discussion” about copyrights with media companies about the launch of Google Showcase - a news service launched at the end of 2020 for which Google pays license fees to publishers; Users can read articles there that are otherwise behind a payment barrier.
In November, Google first reached an agreement with well-known French newspapers such as “Le Monde”, “Le Figaro” and “Liberation” on remuneration for their content Represents national and regional press.
AFP President Fabrice Fries and Google's France boss Sébastien Missoffe declared on Tuesday that an agreement was "near" here too, and that negotiations were well advanced.
It was only at the beginning of June that the French antitrust authorities imposed a competition fine of 220 million euros on Google because the US group had given preference to its own advertising service provider Google Ad Manager.
This put competitors at a disadvantage.