Google had initially balked at paying for
news, saying news companies benefited
from the millions of readers it sends to their
websites. News companies, meanwhile, have
been demanding for years that digital giants
pay for news content they siphon from
commercial media while taking the lion’s
share of ad revenue.
The watchdog focused on a few specific
violations of its orders by Google. It said
the company pushed news publishers to
negotiate deals for its News Showcase
product, which lets publishers package
stories with panels and features like
timelines, while excluding income from
general search results. Google also told
French news agencies including AFP they
couldn’t pursue payments if their content
appeared on other news sites and came up
in search results.
In Australia, Google and Facebook have signed
licensing deals with news companies after the
government passed a law this year requiring
digital giants to help pay for journalism.
Google has been repeatedly targeted
by French and European Union antitrust
authorities for various business activities seen
as abusing its market dominance, including
a 220 million euro fine that the French
competition watchdog issued the company
last month for abusing its ‘dominant position’
in the online advertising business.