The Autorité de la concurrence has fined Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, Google Ireland Ltd and Google France €250 million for failing to comply with some of the commitments made binding by Decision 22-D-13 of 21 June 2022.
Google and other online platforms have been accused of earning billions from news without sharing the revenue with those who produce it.
European Union created a form of copyright in 2019 called “neighboring rights” that allows print media to demand compensation for using their content.
This is the fourth decision issued by the Autorité in this case in four years. These decisions come against the backdrop of the adoption of the French law of 24 July 2019 on related rights (transposing the EU directive on copyright and related rights of 17 April 2019), aiming to create the necessary conditions for balanced negotiations between press agencies, publishers and digital platforms. This legislative framework aimed to redefine, to the benefit of players in the press sector, the sharing of value between these players and to address the profound changes affecting the press sector for several years, in particular the growth of digital audiences, concomitant with the decline in print circulation, and the fact that a significant share of advertising value is now held by the major digital platforms.
