Google paid the equivalent of 67 million euros to Canadian media for the use of their content

As part of an agreement reached with the Canadian government in October 2023, Google announced on Friday January 3 that it had paid 100 million Canadian dollars (more than 67 million euros) to national media to use their content.

The funds were paid to the Canadian Journalism Collective, a non-profit organization created specifically to manage the distribution of this money, a Google spokesperson confirmed to Agence France-Presse.

The digital giant intends to continue to meet its commitments under this agreement, which provides for a new payment at the end of 2025, added this spokesperson.

Paul Deegan, the president of News Media Canada, an organization representing hundreds of publishers, welcomed a deal offering remuneration “very superior” to what has been done elsewhere, each media can hope to obtain 20,000 Canadian dollars per journalist.

Anti-competitive practices in online advertising

Although Google and the Canadian government were able to reach an agreement on this subject, relations remain tense since Ottawa accuses the American giant of anti-competitive practices in the online advertising market. In November 2024, the Canadian Competition Bureau launched proceedings against the Mountain View (California) company, ruling that Canada's largest Internet advertising technology provider had abused its dominant position by adopting “behavior aimed at guaranteeing the maintenance and consolidation of its commercial power”.

Google's advertising practices are also the subject of investigations or proceedings in the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The Californian group is currently before the courts in the United States. In November 2024, the Department of Justice asked a judge to order the sale of its search engine, Chrome, which has been accused of anti-competitive practices. In a separate trial, a jury in a federal court in Washington has already found Google guilty of anticompetitive practices in Internet search.