French regulator gives Google three months to negotiate with media groups

Competition regulators in France have ordered Google to pay media groups for displaying their content. According to reports, the regulator asked Google to begin negotiations after the tech giant has for months refused to comply with Europe's new digital copyright law. The regulators have given Google three months to begin negotiations with publishers and news agencies on the remuneration for the re-use of their protected contents.

Google abusing its 'Dominant Position'

As per reports, the new rule is called ‘neighbouring rights’ and is designed to ensure that news publishers are compensated for when their work is shown on the websites. The law will apply retroactively to October 2019 when France became the first nation to ratify the European Union law. But the tech giant for months has refused to comply.

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According to reports, Google has said that it will only allow articles, pictures and videos to be shown on their platform if media groups agree to have them shown if they can be used without any cost. If the media groups refuse then they will show only a headline and a bare link to the content. Google has claimed that their refusal will almost certainly lead to a loss in visibility and potential ad revenue.

As per reports, regulators said that Google was using its dominant position to abuse its power and that its actions would harm the press sector. Google has yet to publicly respond to the accusations made against it but has dismissed claims of media groups.

Google invests $6.5 Million

Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc’s Google has said on April 3 that it would invest $6.5 million to fund the fact-checkers as well as the non-profit organisations to combat misinformation that has spiked amid the unprecedented outbreak of deadly COVID-19 outbreak. As the global death toll of the pandemic has crossed 53,000 and over one million are infected, Google has decided to combat false information. Even the health authorities have warned that over-saturation of information during the time of outbreak would make it difficult for people to obtain the required assistance.

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