Paris: Technology conglomerate Google Inc on Tuesday was fined $592 million by France's competition regulator for allegedly violating orders to negotiate paid deals with French publishers.
According to reports, the agency has even warned Google to come up with proposals within two months on how it will compensate news producers or it will levy a fine of another 900,000 euros (around 1 million) per day.
While announcing the fine, French regulator noted that Google had violated its April 2020 orders that Alphabet Inc. must negotiate with news publishers for the right to show a portion of their content in its search results.
The tech giant was slapped with a hefty fine after complaints from various publishers including Le Monde, Le Figaro and others, news agency AP reported.
Drubbed over the fine, Google France termed the move to be 'very disappointing' and that the fine doesn't reflect the efforts put in place or the reality of the use of news content on our platform.
Google France also said it is negotiating in good faith toward a solution, and on the verge of reaching an agreement with some publishers.
The move comes amid the ongoing dispute between the European Union and technology firms like Google 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 today for breaching those orders.