The French antitrust regulator is set to fine Google €500 million ($593 million) after the tech giant failed to reach a deal with publishers using its platform. The argument centers around a 2020 decision levied on Google News to pay media outlets and publishers for snippets displayed on the service.
Google has apparently ignored the Autorité de la concurrence and now will have to pay the fine. Or, more likely, head straight back to court to contend the fine.
French Competition Regulator Calls Google to Task
Google is coming under much closer scrutiny, with many governments taking issue with its allegedly monopolistic business practices. It isn’t the first time Google has appeared in the courts of European regulators, while back at home, President Biden is investigating a series of regulations aimed to curb the dominance of Big Tech (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon).
Isabelle de Silva, president of the French competition regulator, explained that “The sanction of 500 million euros takes into account the exceptional seriousness of the breaches observed.”
Earlier in 2021, Google reached an accord with some French publications, but de Silva called that figure “negligible.”
The €500 million fine is the second-biggest antitrust penalty issued in France for a single company. However, Google does have the option of appealing the decision—and is expected to take it. The French authorities record still stands with the €1.1 billion fine slapped on Apple for anti-competitive dealings, although like Google, Apple continues to appeal the decision.
Google’s Antitrust Battles Continue
The enormous fine is just the latest in a series of antitrust and monopoly allegations and hearings playing out for Google worldwide. The case in France has been building since at least 2019, but European regulators have long had Google in their sights. Indeed, just last month, in June 2021, regulators fined Google €220 million over its online advertising dominance.
Earlier in 2021, Google and Facebook were forced to make deals with local news agencies in Australia. The Australian government introduced new legislation requiring tech companies to pay media websites for content or snippets, forcing the tech giants to stop profiting from other’s work freely.
Google and Facebook both threatened to pull their news content from Australia, and for a while, both did. However, an accord was eventually reached, with both companies creating deals with local news and media outlets to display snippets.
The investigations into Google’s business practices surrounding news site traffic aren’t unfounded. According to the Autorité de la concurrence, Google and other search engines account for “between 26% to 90% of the redirected traffic” to news pages. If Google is creaming off the top of this crucial news site traffic, publishers and media outlets lose out.