France fines Google €500M in copyright row News
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France fines Google €500M in copyright row

France’s competition regulator, fined Google €500 million Tuesday for failing to negotiate “in good faith” with media companies over the use of their content under EU copyright rules. Google had openly disregarded several injunctions issued in April 2020 by displaying snippets of articles on its Google News service.

The authority ordered Google to present a remuneration offer for the current use of protected content to press publishers and agencies that have referred the case to the authority. Google is also required to provide the publishers and agencies with the necessary information for evaluating the offer. Google was given a two-month period to execute the above orders. Failure to do so will result in penalty payments of €900,000 euros per day of delay.

A Google spokesperson said that the company was very disappointed by the decision. Google insisted that they acted in good faith all throughout the process. The company has argued the fine undermines all their efforts to reach an agreement. The spokesperson further stated that the fine also ignores the reality of how news works on their platform.

Google can appeal the penalty announcement.

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