500 MILLION FINE SLAMMED ON GOOGLE
Google has been fined 500 million euro by France’s competition authority for not taking orders to negotiate “in good faith” with news organizations over the use of their content. It’s the unraveling of a global copyright battle between tech firms and news organisations.
The French authority had ordered that Google enter into deals with news organisations to show extracts of articles in search results, news and other services. But the tech giant seeks to use the contents from EU publishers for free or would not show them in search.
France 2019 new Digital Copyright Law, first in Europe, puts to effect the so-called “neighbouring rights” designed to compensate publishers and news agencies for the use of their materials.
Meanwhile, in some quarters, Google is seen to have effective monopoly in Search, where it is totally dominant. This includes the argument that it uses its power to profitably raise prices or exclude competition.
To check Google’s abuse of its market strength, two organizations representing press publishers and Agence France-Presse (AFP), complain to the competition authority. The verdict is the Wednesday 14 July 2021 fine.
But, Google is on the path of compliance by its claim to be the only company to announce agreements on neighbouring rights, and that it’s about finalizing an agreement with AFP that includes a global licensing agreement and payments for press publications.
However, by the ruling, Google must within two months present a proposal on recompensing companies for the use of their news. Failure to comply attracts additional fines of 900,000 euro per day.
Google Search is by far the most familiar of Google products. The others are Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Docs, Google Photos, the Android operating system and many other products.
