Google faces French copyright ruling with media groups

France’s competition regulator said on Friday it would issue a decision Tuesday on whether Google was negotiating “in good faith” with payments information publishers for the use of their content alongside the results of research.

The long-running legal battle centers on claims that the US internet giant is showing articles, images and videos produced by media groups when displaying search results, without adequate compensation despite the seismic shift in online advertising revenue.

In April 2020, the French Competition Authority ordered Google to negotiate “in good faith” with media groups, after refusing to comply with a new European law governing digital copyright.

“Neighboring rights” aim to ensure that publishers of information are paid when their work is disseminated on websites, search engines and social media platforms.

But last September, news publishers including Agence France-Presse (AFP) filed a complaint with regulators, saying Google refused to pay more to display content in web searches.

The competition authority will rule on this point, before rendering a final judgment later this year on allegations of abuse of Google’s monopoly power in Internet news searches.

News organizations struggling with dwindling print subscriptions have long budged from Google’s refusal to give them a share of the millions of dollars it earns from ads displayed alongside news search results.

The US giant retorts that it is encouraging millions to click on media sites, and it has also spent a lot to support media groups in other ways, including emergency funding during the Covid crisis. 19.

Meanwhile, Google announced in November that it had signed “individual agreements” on the payment of copyright with French newspapers and magazines, including the major dailies Le Monde and Le Figaro.

AFP did not sign the agreement, but its managing director Fabrice Fries said he was “optimistic” about improving relations with Google and other Internet giants such as Facebook and Apple.

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