The long-running legal battle centres on claims that the US
internet giant is showing articles, pictures and videos produced by media
groups when displaying search results, without adequate compensation despite
the seismic shift of advertising revenue online.
In April 2020, France's competition authority ordered Google
to negotiate "in good faith" with media groups, after it refused to
comply with a new EU law governing digital copyrights.
The so-called "neighbouring rights" aim to ensure
that news publishers are compensated when their work is shown 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 was
refusing to more forward on paying to display content in web searches.
The competition authority will rule on this point, before
issuing a final ruling later this year on Google's alleged abuse of monopoly
power in internet news searches.
News outlets struggling with dwindling print subscriptions
have long seethed at Google's refusal to give them a cut of the millions of
euros it makes from ads displayed alongside news search results.
The US giant counters that it encourages millions of people
to click through to media sites, and it has also spent heavily to support media
groups in other ways, including emergency funding during the Covid-19 crisis.
In the meantime, Google announced in November that it had
signed "some individual agreements" on copyright payments with French
newspapers and magazines, including top dailies Le Monde and Le Figaro.
AFP did not sign the accord, but its chief executive Fabrice
Fries said he was "optimistic" about improved relations with Google
and other internet giants such as Facebook and Apple.
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