France Fined 500 Million Euros for 'Unfair Negotiations on Press News Usage Fees' with Google

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] France has imposed a fine of 500 million euros (approximately 677.9 billion KRW) on the search service Google for not sincerely engaging in negotiations over news usage fees with media companies, Bloomberg reported.

Isabelle de Silva of the French Competition Authority (FCA) told reporters on the 13th (local time) that the largest fine was imposed on Alphabet, Google's parent company, for not complying with the authority's decision. The Competition Authority is equivalent to South Korea's Fair Trade Commission.

The Competition Authority ordered Google to compensate media companies up to 900,000 euros (approximately 1.2 billion KRW) per day if negotiations do not begin within two months.

Since 2019, Google and French media companies have been in sharp conflict over how Google displays news content and the payment of usage fees accordingly. Media companies have argued that while Google earns significant revenue through online search advertising, it does not provide appropriate compensation for displaying articles, photos, and videos provided by French media companies in search results.

The European Union (EU) established copyright regulations in March 2019 to allow for the collection of usage fees for news content consumed on search engines and social networking services (SNS). Based on this, French media companies requested usage fees from Google, but Google refused. Consequently, the French Press Association (APIG) and AFP filed a lawsuit against Google with the FCA. In response, the FCA ordered Google to negotiate with media companies in April last year.

Google expressed disappointment with the French authority's decision, stating, "It does not reflect the efforts Google is currently making nor the reality of news content consumption on the platform." They also emphasized, "This decision refers to negotiations that took place from May to September 2020," and added, "Since then, Google has continued to cooperate to find common ground with publishers and news agencies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.