Paris (AFP)

Google is appealing the fine of 500 million euros imposed in July by the French Competition Authority in the neighboring rights case, the first decision of a European regulatory authority on this subject, he announced. Wednesday.

"We disagree with certain legal elements, and consider that the amount of the fine is disproportionate in relation to the efforts that we have put in place" to apply neighboring rights, which aim to remunerate the press for the resumption of its content by the search engine, said Sébastien Missoffe, CEO of Google France in a statement.

"We recognize the neighboring right, and we remain committed to signing agreements in France" with press editors, he added.

On July 13, the French Competition Authority fined Google 500 million euros for not having negotiated "in good faith" with press editors on the application of neighboring rights.

The Competition Authority had also ordered Google to "present an offer of remuneration for the current uses of their protected content" to publishers and press agencies, under penalty of being subject to periodic penalty payments of up to 900,000. euros per day in total.

On Wednesday, the American giant said that it had taken initiatives to respond to the demands expressed by the Competition Authority on July 13.

"We have extended our offer to more than 1,200 newspaper publishers, modified certain aspects of our contracts, and we are sharing the data that have been requested of us in order to comply with the decision of the Competition Authority," said M Missoffe.

Sébastien Missoffe, CEO of Google France, in Paris on September 18, 2018 Thomas SAMSON AFP / Archives

The conflict between Google and French press publishers concerns the rights that Google must pay for press content - extracts from articles, photos, videos, infographics, etc. - which appear in the results pages when searching for the Internet user.

These neighboring rights are explicitly provided for by new European legislation adopted in 2019, immediately transposed in France.

Google had initially refused to pay publishers, considering them sufficiently remunerated by the traffic it sent to their sites.

Seized by the press editors - Syndicate of press editors of the magazine press, Alliance of the general information press, AFP -, the Authority had imposed in April 2020 "emergency measures" on Google, ie an obligation to negotiate remuneration "in good faith" with press editors.

But the latter and AFP had seized the Competition Authority in September 2020, believing that Google was not respecting its obligations.

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