In the 93-page report, known as a statement of objections,
the investigators wrote that Google's failure to comply was of an exceptionally
serious nature, the sources said.
This comes amid complaints by French news publishers that
Google failed to hold talks with them in good faith to find an agreement. The
same publishers were not part of the $76 million three-year deal signed between
the U.S. firm and and a group of 121 publications, as Reuters reported earlier
this month.
The agreement was presented as a major step forward by both
Google and the publishers who signed it, but left many publications infuriated.
The French competition authority can impose fines of up to
10% of sales on firms it deems in violation of its rules. Google's annual sales
amounted to about $183 billion in 2020.
The investigative report is a key element in the authority's
sanction process, but it is up to the watchdog's board, led by Isabelle de
Silva, to decide whether to issue a penalty.
The biggest penalty ever levied by the French antitrust
authority was against iPhone maker Apple Inc last year, with a 1.1 billion-euro
($1.34 billion) fine for anti-competitive behaviour towards its distribution
and retail network.
A spokeswoman for the competition authority declined to
comment.
In response to a Reuters request for comment, Google said in
a statement: "Our priority is to comply with the law, and to continue to
negotiate with publishers in good faith, as evidenced by the agreements we have
made with publishers in the past few months."
"We will now review the statement of objections, and
will work closely with the French competition authority," it said.
The French report on Google's negotiating tactics comes at a
time when countries around the world are pushing U.S. internet giants such as
Google and Facebook Inc to share more revenue with news publishers. The issue
gained international attention this week when Facebook banned all news from its
services in Australia over a draft law there that would mandate arbitration.
According to the two sources, the French investigators say
Google did not comply with requests from the watchdog to start negotiations
with the publishers within a three-month deadline, and to provide all data the
watchdog felt publishers needed.
The publishers' lobby that signed the deal with Google,
APIG, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. French news agency
AFP, and another media lobby group, SEPM - both of which did not sign a deal
with Google - did not respond to requests for comment.
Reuters reached its own global deal with Google in January on terms that have not been publicly disclosed. - Reuters
0 comments:
Post a Comment