Google to pay record-high $593 million in fine over French news copyright dispute

Google was hit with a fine in France as the anti-trust regulators in the country said that it failed to comply with an order to arrange fair deals with the French news publishers for content copyright. The American tech company was slapped with a $593 million fine or around €500 million.

Google’s offense for the penalty

According to CNBC, the French competition regulators revealed the penalty it leveled on Google on Tuesday, July 13. The Autorité de la concurrence, the national competition regulator of France, said the company broke a ruling that was handed down in April 2020 where it was ordered to negotiate “in good faith” licensing deals with news agencies and publishers for the use of their copyrighted content.

In January of this year, it was noted that Google agreed to copyright deals with the publishers. Based on what was agreed upon, the firm will arrange individual licenses with the members of the press alliance. The deal should cover related rights and give them access to Google’s News Showcase.

However, it appears that Google failed to follow through with the deal, so the French anti-trust regulators have stepped up to raise the issue. The agency further said that Google did not include a discussion on remuneration for current uses of content covered by the “neighboring rights” for the news publishers. It was said that Google also restricted the extent of discussions with the media by declining to add the use of press images in the negotiation.

The highest fine set by France’s competition watchdog

The American company will be paying more than half a billion dollars, and it was reported that this is the highest amount that the French regulator has ever imposed. Google said that the French agency’s decision is very disappointing.

“We have acted in good faith throughout the entire process,” the company’s spokesman stated. “The fine ignore our efforts to reach an agreement, and the reality of how news works on our platforms.”

Bloomberg reported that Google should now come up with proposals, and they should be submitted within the next two months. The company must lay out the plans on how it will be compensating the news agencies and publishers for the use of the news content. If it fails to forward a proposal on the due date, the company may face additional fines of €900,000 per day.