PARIS (Reuters) – French antitrust investigators have accused Google of Alphabet Inc of breaching orders from the state competition authority on how to conduct negotiations with copyright news publishers, according to two sources who they read the researchers ’report.
In the 93-page report, known as the Statement of Objections, investigators wrote that Google’s breach was exceptionally serious, according to sources.
This comes amid complaints from French news editors that Google was unable to hold talks with them in good faith to find a deal. The publishers themselves were not part of the $ 76 million three-year agreement signed between the U.S. firm and a group of 121 publications, Reuters reported earlier this month.
Google and the publishers who signed it presented the deal as a big step forward, but it infuriated many publications.
The French competition authority may impose fines of up to 10% of sales on companies it deems to be in breach of its rules. Google’s annual sales amounted to about $ 183 billion in 2020.
The investigation report is a key element in the authority’s sanctioning process, but it is up to the supervisory board, led by Isabelle de Silva, to decide whether to impose a penalty.
The biggest sanction imposed by the French antitrust authority was that of iPhone maker Apple Inc. last year, with a fine of 1.1 billion euros ($ 1.34 billion) for anti-competitive behavior against its network of distribution and retail.
A spokeswoman for the competition authority declined to comment.
In response to a request for comment from Reuters, Google said in a statement: “Our priority is to comply with the law and continue to negotiate in good faith with publishers, as evidenced by the agreements we have made with publishers in recent years. years months “.
“We will now review the statement of objections and work closely with the French competition authority,” he said.
The French report on Google’s trading tactics comes at a time when countries around the world are pressuring American Internet giants like 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 about a bill that would force arbitration.
According to both sources, French investigators say Google did not comply with the watchdog’s requests to start negotiations with the publishers within three months and provide all the data the watchdog deemed the editors needed.
The publishers’ lobby that signed the agreement with Google, APIG, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The French news agency AFP and another media lobby, SEPM, which did not sign an agreement with Google, did not respond to requests for comment.
Reuters reached its own global agreement with Google in January on terms that have not been publicly disclosed.
($ 1 = 0.8228 euros)
Report by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris; Edited by Peter Graff and Matthew Lewis