French media regulators announced on Wednesday, March 20, that they are imposing a fine of €250,000,000 on Google for violating an agreement regarding payment terms to companies for the use of their content online.
The Competition Authority of France stated that the fine was issued for failure to comply with commitments made in 2022.
They also accused Google of not negotiating in good faith with news publishers regarding compensation for the use of their content.
Google, along with other online platforms, has faced allegations of profiting from news content without adequately sharing revenue with content creators.
To address this, the European Union introduced a form of copyright known as neighboring rights, allowing the print media to demand compensation for the use of their content.
Meanwhile, France has been at the forefront of implementing these rules, and despite initial resistance, Google and Facebook eventually agreed to compensate French media for displaying their articles in search results.
In 2022, the regulators accepted commitments from Google to engage in fair negotiations with news organizations.
According to the agreement, Google must present news groups with a transparent payment offer within three months of receiving a copyright complaint.
This latest fine follows previous penalties imposed on Google by French regulators. In 2021, the tech giant was fined €500 million for similar violations related to negotiations.
In a separate even, the Seoul High Court in Korea ruled against Google, imposing a fine of 224.9 billion won for restricting smartphone manufacturers from using alternative mobile operating systems (OS) aside from Android.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had initially fined Google in September 2021 for abusing its dominant market position by requiring manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, to sign anti-fragmentation agreements (AFA), thereby preventing them from customizing the Android OS.
Google contested the FTC’s orders and fines, but the higher court upheld the regulator’s decision, stating that Google’s AFA policy hindered innovation in the development of new smart devices by manufacturers.
The ruling noted instances where Google’s policies prevented companies like Samsung, LG Electronics, Amazon, and Alibaba from launching devices with alternative operating systems or modified versions of Android.
However, Google expressed disappointment with the court’s decision, stating that its compatibility program has benefited Korean device manufacturers and app developers, as well as Korean consumers.
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