France Forces Google to Pay for the Republication of News Media

The French competition authority instructs Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to pay publishers and news media for publishing copy on Google.

Alphabet has three months to conclude fee agreements with French news media companies.

Google has been publishing extracts of news items on its news service for years without paying the creators for it.

In this way, Google may be abusing its position as a market leader, causing the news media to cause “serious and acute damage,” the French competition watchdog said today.

The decision of the Autorité de la concurrence puts an end to Google’s practices in France.