Daniel Fortin, editor-in-chief at Les Echos, speaks every day in the 7am newspaper to enlighten you on THE economic fact of the day.

Today, he returns to the fine imposed by the Competition Authority on the American giant Google.

The platform is accused of bad faith in its negotiations with press editors.

This is the highest fine imposed by the Competition Authority for non-compliance with its decisions and it is Google which bears the costs the American group will have to pay 500 million euros, it is accused of bad faith in its negotiations with press editors on the conditions for resuming their content on its platform.

Yes it's a new episode in a battle that has lasted for years, each camp referring the arguments to the figure, the press editors explain that Google must pay them because they are the ones who take care of the investments intended for the production information, Google for its part explains that thanks to the resumption of content on its platform it is helping newspapers which have more audiences and therefore receive more advertising revenue, in 2018, Brussels signs the end of the game a directive requires Groups like Google to pay the media for the resumption of their articles, it is believed that this is the end of a standoff between the two camps.

But why has the situation escalated?

Well, following this directive, Google is forced to negotiate with publishers, in France a framework agreement is concluded with the Alliance of the general information press, the problem is that the American group is increasing the technical obstacles. or legal suddenly the Competition Authority has lost patience so it has imposed this sanction of 500 million euros on Google but in addition it requires it to offer a rapid compensation offer to publishers, under penalty of being imposed daily penalty payments of 900,000 euros.

And you believe this is a landmark decision.

Yes, because once again the French Competition Authority has hit hard, a year ago it had imposed a fine of 150 million euros on the same Google for abuse of a dominant position in the advertising market. linked to online research, since a new president Isabelle de Silva took over, she has clearly made the regulation of Gafa a priority issue, no longer a question of accepting the monopoly attitudes of the American tech giants, the he French supervisory body is now at the forefront of this fight, recognized as such in Europe, and it has just proven it.