Karimi & Associates Law Firm presents according to The Guardian:
Google has appealed against a €500m fine imposed by France’s antitrust authority following a dispute with local media concerning payment for news content. Google has been fined due to its failure to comply with France’s antitrust organization on how to conduct the talks with publishers. The case was regarding that whether Google breached temporary orders issued by the French Competition Authority, which stated that talks with publishers should take place, within three months, with any news publishers that asked for them.
Sebastien Missoffe, the head of Google France, has stated in a press statement that: “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,” he further added: “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.”
In 2019, European Union established a copyright directive that contained a new right for news publishers to charge for the display of news “snippets” on search engine results. In February, Facebook temporarily removed news from its platform for its users in Australia because of this matter.