After the French antitrust regulator slapped Google in July with $591 million fine for its non-compliance with an order to present proposals to remunerate publishers for reuse of their content, the US tech giant announced Wednesday its intentions to challenge the fine, Le Monde reports.
The regulator accused Google of allegedly violating its April 2020 orders to negotiate with publishers for the right to show snippets of their content in its search results after their complaints that the US is sidestepping France’s implementation of a new EU copyright directive.
Underscoring that Google recognizes neighboring rights and is committed to signing agreements with French publishers, Google France CEO Sebastien Missoffe noted they disagree with some legal issues and pointed the amount of the fine is disproportionate to their efforts to comply with the order.
The appeal of the American giant will be reviewed by the Paris Court of Appeal.
Isabelle de Silva, the president of the French national competition regulator Autorité de la Concurrence, pointed in July that the fine issued to Google was the highest ever imposed by the regulator in attempt to mark the seriousness of Google’s breaches of its obligations.
The French regulator also underlined that Google’s behavior was deliberate, elaborate and systematic strategy of non-compliance with the injunction to negotiate in good faith and gave Google two-month deadline before mandating the company to pay up to 900,000 euros per day.
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