French antitrust regulator asks Google to pay USD 600 mln over neighboring rights issue

Paris [France] July 13 (ANI/Sputnik) France’s Competition Authority on Tuesday imposed on Google a penalty of 500 million euros (almost USD 600 million) for non-compliance with one of its rulings made last year regarding the issue of the tech giant’s compensations to French publishers for the use of their content.

In 2019, France’s General information Press Alliance, comprising around 300 national and regional media outlets, filed a complaint against Google for its refusal to operate under the European legislation on neighboring rights, designed to make digital corporations account for their use of media content online.

“In a decision made public today, the Authority is imposing on Google a sanction of 500 million euros for having disregarded several injunctions issued as part of its decision on provisional measures of April 2020,” the statement read.

In the ruling in question, Google was ordered to conduct negotiations “in good faith” with French publishers on the payment for the use of their content, something that the digital giant failed to do, according to the regulator.

The authority has given the tech company two months to come up with a compensation offer for the country’s media outlets, threatening to impose a daily fine of up to 900,000 euros when the deadline expires. (ANI/Sputnik)