On Wednesday, Google was smacked by France’s competition watchdog with yet another large penalty related to an ongoing dispute over payments made to French publishers for their news.
According to the French Competition Authority, Google violated several agreements it made in a framework for negotiations, which is why it was hit with the $250 million ($272 million) fine.
The argument is a part of a bigger attempt by global and European authorities to compel Google and other digital firms to pay news publishers for content.
Laptops 1000The American internet giant was compelled to negotiate with French publishers after a 2020 court upheld a ruling stating that a 2019 European Union copyright legislation mandated payments.
In a blog post, Google stated that “it’s time to move on” and that it had decided to pay the fee levied due to how it handled the discussions.
The fine, according to the statement, “does not sufficiently take into account” Google’s efforts to address and rectify the concerns, and it was “not proportionate” to the issues brought up by the French watchdog.
Of the 27 countries that make up the European Union, France was the first to enact the copyright directive, which provides guidelines for publishers and news organizations seeking to license content from online platforms.
The French Competition Authority decided on Wednesday to penalize Google for the fourth time in a row for not adhering to the EU regulatory framework, which attempts to create “necessary conditions for balanced negotiations between press agencies, publishers, and digital platforms.”
Laptops 1000In April 2020, the French antitrust agency temporarily ordered Google to schedule negotiations with news publishers for three months.
Google was fined 500 million euros ($592 million) by the agency in 2021 for not negotiating a just payment for news published by publishers.
