The American company Google announced, Wednesday 1er September, that it appealed against the fine of 500 million euros imposed in July in France by the Competition Authority in the case of neighboring rights. “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 [pour appliquer la nouvelle loi sur les droits voisins] “, said Sébastien Missoffe, CEO of Google France, in a press release.
“We recognize neighboring rights, and we remain committed to signing agreements in France” with news publishers, he added. On July 13, the Competition Authority sentenced Google to a fine of 500 million euros for not having negotiated ” in good faith “ with press editors on the application of neighboring rights.
The French gendarme had also ordered Google to “Present an offer of remuneration for the current uses of their protected content” publishers and press agencies, under penalty of being subject to periodic penalty payments of up to 900,000 euros per day.
“Severity” of the breaches
On Wednesday, the American giant said it had taken initiatives to respond to the requests expressed by the Competition Authority. “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 Mr. Missoffe.
The French sanction is “The highest fine” never inflicted by the Competition Authority for non-compliance with one of its decisions, its president, Isabelle de Silva, had declared in July. “We wanted to mark the gravity” Google’s breaches of its obligations, had justified Mr.me by Silva. Google don’t “Still does not seem to accept the law” creating neighboring rights, or “It is not for an operator to refuse the law”, she had also declared.
For the Competition Authority, “Google’s behavior [relevait alors] a deliberate, elaborate and systematic strategy of non-compliance ” the injunction to negotiate in good faith, had justified the proceedings in a press release. For example, “Google’s negotiations with publishers and news agencies cannot be regarded as having been conducted in good faith”.
Non-compliance with “emergency measures”
The conflict between Google and French press publishers affects 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 an Internet user. These neighboring rights are explicitly provided for by European legislation adopted in 2019, immediately transposed in France.
Hostile in principle, Google had first tried to force publishers of the press to grant it the right to use this content free of charge. The company felt that publishers were paid quite a bit for the traffic it sent to their sites.
Seized by press editors – Syndicate of magazine press editors, General information press alliance, Agence France-Presse -, the authority had imposed in April 2020 “Emergency measures” to Google, or an obligation to negotiate ” in good faith “ remuneration with press editors. But the latter had again seized the Competition Authority in September 2020, believing that Google was not respecting its obligations.