The French Competition Authority on Tuesday fined Google 500 million euros (593 million dollar). At the current exchange rate, the amount in Bangladeshi currency is about five thousand crore TK.
According to the French market competition regulatory authority, Google did not show honesty in negotiations to pay French news organizations in exchange for news shared on their sites.
News organizations have long been embroiled in a copyright dispute with major technology companies around the world, with news organizations claiming a portion of Google’s advertising revenue. Google has been in talks with about 300 news organizations in France for a long time to share advertising revenue.
The plan was that Google would pay these organizations for the summaries of news from various news outlets that show up in their search results. This was the first such initiative in Europe.
Google was forced to take such action after the European Union tightened its copyright laws. But major French news outlets have complained that Google has not been honest enough to reach a consensus on the issue. Google says it will pay 121 French news outlets 60 million dollar over three years to settle a copyright dispute.
Google officials told the BBC: “We are shocked by this decision. We are moving forward with the utmost fidelity in the whole process. “
The tech giant says its deal with the news agency AFP is almost finalized. This includes global licensing agreements and payments to news organizations.
Isabel Silva, one of the members of the Competition Authority, said in a statement that when authorities impose obligations on an organization, they must comply. It was very unfortunate not to do so in this case.
