French Competition Watchdog Hits Google with 250 Mln Euro Fine 

The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 10, 2024. (Reuters)
The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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French Competition Watchdog Hits Google with 250 Mln Euro Fine 

The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 10, 2024. (Reuters)
The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 10, 2024. (Reuters)

France's competition watchdog on Wednesday said it fined Google 250 million euros ($271.73 million) for breaches linked to EU intellectual property rules in its relationship with media publishers.

Google has pledged not to contest the facts as part of settlement proceedings, the watchdog said, adding the company also proposed a series of remedy measures to certain shortcomings.

The fine is linked to a copyright dispute in France over online content in a case triggered by complaints from some of France's biggest news organizations, including Agence France Presse (AFP).

The dispute seemed resolved in 2022 when the US tech giant dropped its appeal against an initial 500 million euro fine issued at the end of a major investigation carried out by the Autorite de la Concurrence.

In Wednesday's statement, the watchdog said Google violated the terms of four out of seven commitments agreed in the settlement agreement, including conducting negotiations with publishers in good faith and providing transparent information.

Google could not immediately be reached for comment.



Global Tech Outage to Cost Air France KLM Close to $11 mln

Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Saturday, April 7, 2018. Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Saturday, April 7, 2018. Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
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Global Tech Outage to Cost Air France KLM Close to $11 mln

Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Saturday, April 7, 2018. Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Saturday, April 7, 2018. Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Air France KLM faces a hit of about 10 million euros ($10.85 million) from last week's global technology outage, finance chief Steven Zaat said on Thursday.

The group is one of the first airlines to disclose a cost linked to the disruption, Reuters reported.

"The expectation is that it will cost us around 10 million (euros)," Zaad said in a press call, adding that KLM and Transavia bore the brunt of the disruptions while Air France was not seriously affected.

A software update by global cybersecurity company CrowdStrike triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking last Friday.

Delta Air Lines has been the slowest among major US carriers to recover from the outage. The carrier has cancelled more than 6,000 flights since Friday and analysts estimate the hit to its bottom line could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. ($1 = 0.9213 euros)