Google does not bend or break.
The global IT giant is appealing the fine of 500 million euros imposed in July by the French Competition Authority in the case of neighboring rights.
This decision, the first of a European regulatory authority on the subject, was being watched by France's neighbors.
For the French gendarme of competition, Google must pay this sum for not having negotiated "in good faith" with the press editors on the application of neighboring rights, the remuneration due to the editors for the resumption of their contents.
"We disagree with certain legal elements, and consider that the amount of the fine is disproportionate in relation to the efforts that we have put in place" to apply neighboring rights, which aim to remunerate the press for the resumption of its content by the search engine, said Sébastien Missoffe, CEO of Google France in a statement.
“We recognize neighboring rights, and we remain committed to signing agreements in France” with press editors, he added.
Google pleads goodwill
At the same time as it imposed the fine on Google, the Competition Authority also ordered the giant to "present an offer of remuneration for the current uses of their protected content" to publishers and news agencies, under penalty to be subject to periodic penalty payments of up to 900,000 euros per day in total.
Google says this Wednesday that it has taken initiatives to respond to these requests.
"We have extended our offer to more than 1,200 newspaper publishers, modified certain aspects of our contracts, and we share the data that have been requested of us in order to comply with the decision of the Competition Authority," said Sébastien Missoffe.
Read also Neighboring rights: how Google was fined 500 million euros
The conflict between Google and the French press publishers concerns the rights that Google must pay for press content - extracts from articles, photos, videos, infographics, etc. - which appear in the results pages when searching for the internet user. They are governed by new European legislation adopted in 2019, immediately transposed in France.
Google had initially refused to pay publishers, considering them sufficiently remunerated by the traffic it sent to their sites. Seized by the press editors - Syndicate of press editors of the magazine press, Alliance of the general information press, AFP -, the Authority had imposed in April 2020 "emergency measures" on Google. But the latter had seized the Competition Authority in September 2020, believing that Google was not respecting its obligations.