France’s competition regulator has fined Google 500 million euros (£427 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 (£769,000 ) per day if Google does not 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 is on the verge of reaching an agreement with some publishers.
The dispute is part of a larger effort by the EU to force Google and other tech companies to compensate publishers for content.
The French regulator had issued temporary orders to Google earlier this year to hold talks within three months with news publishers, and fined the company on Tuesday for breaching those orders.
Google has been repeatedly targeted by French and EU authorities for various business activities seen as abusing its market dominance.
