Google deal with French publishers on hold pending an antitrust decision

In what is a worrying move for European publishers – Google has put its preliminary deal to pay French media companies for news content on hold.

It follows Google agreeing to pay a total of $76 million to 121 publishers in January, under an agreement signed by both the tech giant and the major French media lobby group.

The deal is viewed as one of the highest-profile and extensive deals to fall under Google’s developing “News Content” programme.

The programme is designed to provide compensation and remuneration to news companies for content that appears in search results – a first of its kind in Europe.

The deal was frozen in the wake of an anti-trust report that is due to be handed down by the French consumer and competition watchdog in the coming weeks.

The report follows allegations that Google is failing to comply with French competition regulations regarding how the tech giant should conduct negotiations with news publishers over copyright.

Google says “we’re still working with publishers, the APIG and the French competition authority on our agreements in order to finalise and sign more deals.”