Alphabet Inc's Google is facing legal issues after French antitrust investigators have accused the company of not complying with the state competition authority's orders on negotiations with news publishers regarding copyright.
Google accused by antitrust investigators
The report that runs for 93 pages stated that the French investigators wrote that the internet company's failure to comply was of a serious nature. The report, also known as the statement of objections, was released.
The report came in the middle of French news publishers' complaints that Google did not hold talks with them in good faith to find an agreement.
The same news publishers were not part of the $76 million deal that was signed between the company and a group of 121 publications, and the deal is good for three years, according to Reuters.
Presented as a major step forward by both the publishers and Google, the agreement left a lot of publications infuriated. The French competition authority has the power to impose fines of up to 10% of sales on companies that it thinks violated its rules. In 2020, Google's annual sales totaled at around $183 billion.
The investigators' report is the main element in sanctioning Google for breaching the deal when it comes to the state competition authority. However, it is up to the board of watchdog, which Isabelle de Silva leads, to decide whether they will issue a penalty.
The biggest penalty that was ever levied by the French antitrust authority was against Apple Inc. in 2020, with a 1.1 billion euro fine or around $1.34 billion for anti-competitive behavior towards its distribution of its products and its retail network, according to US News.
Reuters tried to reach out to the competition authority, but the spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
Google's statement on the matter
Meanwhile, Google released an official response to the accusation and said that their priority is to comply with the law and continue to negotiate with the publishers in good faith, as seen by the agreements they have made with the publishers in the past couple of months.
Google stated that they will review the report and work with the French competition authority to sort everything out.
The French report on Google's negotiating tactics came right when countries are pushing the United States internet companies like Facebook and Google to share more revenue with the news publishers that they feature on their site.
The issue gained international attention when Facebook banned all of the news from its services in Australia over a draft law in the country that would mandate arbitration.
According to the two sources, the French investigators stated that Google did not comply with the watchdog's requests to start negotiations with the publishes in a three-month deadline and give all data the watchdog felt news publishers needed.
The publishers' lobby that signed the deal did not reply to a request for comment from Reuters. Meanwhile, AFP and SEPM, both publications that did not sign a deal with Google, responded to the requests for comment, according to News18.
The issue is still ongoing, and there is no drawn conclusion yet if Google will settle or if the case won't be pushed further.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Sieeka Khan
