Google appeals against 500 million euro fine by French watchdog

Google is appealing against a 500 million euro ($591 million) fine imposed by France’s antitrust watchdog in July, the tech company said on Wednesday.

The watchdog fined Google over dispute with news publishers for not paying them enough for their news content.

"We disagree with a number of legal elements, and believe that the fine is disproportionate to our efforts to reach an agreement and comply with the new law," said Sebastien Missoffe, head of Google France.

"We continue to work hard to resolve this case and put deals in place. This includes expanding offers to 1,200 publishers, clarifying aspects of our contracts, and sharing more data as requested by the French Competition Authority."

The watchdog said on Wednesday that the appeal by Google would not hold up the fine and the tech giant must still pay.

The fine was imposed on Google on failing to comply with the French regulator’s order of conducting talks with the publishers.

In the July 13 decision by the watchdog, it said that Google must put forward some proposals on how it plans to compensate news publishers for their content within the next two months.

It also said that if Google fails to do that, it would face additional fines of up to 900,000 euros per day.

The case was focused on temporary orders by the French antitrust agency to Google in April 2020 which asked the tech giant to hold talks with news publishers and fined it for breaching the orders.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Picture Credits: Reuters