Today, On 20th March (Wednesday), French regulators fine Google €250 millions. This is for breaching the payment agreement with media companies for reproducing their content online.
France’s Competition Authority said in a statement that, “the fine was for “failing to respect commitments made in June 2022” and accused it of not negotiating in “good faith” with news publishers about how much to compensate them for using their content.“
Google and other online platforms has made billions of dollars from news without sharing the profits with those who collect it. To address this, the EU developed a type of copyright known as “neighboring rights,” which allows print media to seek compensation for using their content. France has served as a test case for the rules, and after some initial resistance, Google and Facebook have both agreed to pay some French media for articles that appear in web searches.
In 2022, French regulators accepted Google’s commitments to negotiate fairly with news organizations. According to the agreement, the US tech behemoth must provide news organizations with a transparent offer of payment within three months of receiving a copyright complaint. Organizations representing French magazines and newspapers, as well as Agence France-Presse, filed a complaint with the regulator in 2019. Google, fiercely oppose the concept of paying for content and was fined €500 million ($530 million) in 2021 for failing to negotiate in good faith.
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