Last Tuesday, Google (GOOGL  ) was hit with a €500 million ($593 million) fine by France's Competition Authority after it failed to reach definitive agreements with several publishers over the use of their content.

"When the Authority imposes orders on companies, they are required to apply them scrupulously, respecting their letter and spirit. In this instance, unfortunately, this was not the case," said the Authority's president, Isabelle de Silva. The fine, the second-largest ever levied against a single company in the history of the Authority, represents "the exceptional seriousness of the breach concerned," she added.

In April 2020, the Authority ordered Google to negotiate with publishers for the right to preview portions of their articles across its news and search services. Google has since hammered out deals with a number of prominent French broadsheets, including Le Monde and Le Figaro. Nevertheless, Google's negotiations with Agence France-Presse, a prominent newswire, remain ongoing.

"We are very disappointed with this decision," said a Google spokeswoman. "The fine ignores our efforts to reach an agreement, and the reality of how new works on our platforms." However, the company also said that it wants to "turn the page with a definitive agreement," and that it remains open to feedback from regulators.

France was the first to implement the European Union's 2019 Digital Copyright Directive, which governs "neighboring rights" aimed at remunerating publishers for the reuse of their material.

As a result, Google began to omit European publishers from its news services search results. In short, publishers were threatened with digital irrelevance if they didn't allow Google to use their content for free. Feeling that Google was abusing its market position, two prominent newsgroups, including AFP, filed a complaint with the Competition Authority.

Google says that the Authority's decision doesn't reflect its conduct after September 2020. Since then, it says it has finalized deals with several prominent French news outlets, including a group of French newspapers, the Alliance de la Presse d'Information Générale.

However, Ms. de Silva said that regulators disregarded these efforts, claiming that the compensation offered by Google was "negligible." She complained that Google offered to pay news publishers the same rate that it paid weather forecasters and online dictionaries.

In its decision, the Authority highlighted a few specific breaches on Google's part. Regulators claim that Google pressured publishers into its News Showcase service and that it withheld information which prevented publishers from determining how much compensation they should receive.

As a result, French publishers can now renegotiate any deals they may have struck with Google. And If negotiations are not completed within two months of a formal request, Google could face fines of up to $365,000 a day for each deal that remains on the table.

AFP Chief Executive Fabrice Fries said that the decision clarified the rights of publishers to remuneration under French law and noted that "AFP is confident it can soon find a deal with Google."