Google Fined $592 Million in Dispute with French Publishers

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2019, file photo, a woman walks below a Google sign on the campus in Mountain View, Calif. Google is in the crosshairs of U.S. antitrust regulators who accuse it of wrongdoing similar to charges Microsoft faced 22 years ago, when Google was starting out in a Silicon Valley garage. How Google grew from its idealistic roots into what regulators describe as a cutthroat behemoth is a story shaped by unbridled ambition, savvy decision making, technology’s networking effects, lax regulatory oversight and the pressure to pump up profits. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

France’s competition regulator announced Tuesday that it has fined Google 500 million euros ($592 million) over a dispute with French publishers who want the company to pay for the use of their news.

The agency threatened fines of another 900,000 euros (around $1 million) per day if Google doesn’t produce proposals within two months on how it will compensate news producers.

Google France said in a statement it was “very disappointed” by the decision, and that the fine “doesn't reflect the efforts put in place or the reality of the use of news content on our platform.” It said it is negotiating in good faith toward a solution, and on the verge of reaching an agreement with some publishers.

The dispute is part of a larger effort by the European Union to force Google and other tech companies to compensate publishers for content.

The French antitrust agency had issued temporary orders to Google earlier this year to hold talks within three months with news publishers, and fined the company Tuesday for breaching those orders, reported the Associated Press.

Google has been repeatedly targeted by French and European Union antitrust authorities for various business activities seen as abusing its market dominance.