The search engine giant has sent a letter to several ministerial offices saying that if such a law is enacted it “would threaten its very existence", notes BBC. According to the French media, it is unfair that Google received ad revenue for the content they are producing. Google on the other hand is of the opinion that because of its search engine, the French media websites receive four billion hits each month.
Initially France was in favour of levying tax on online advertising revenue but, it didn’t go ahead with those plans as it believed that this particular move will hurt smaller businesses and companies rather than the internet giants.
The French government was asked by news publishers to enact a law that would force internet search engines to pay for content that it indexes. According to the news publishers such a law would, in a way, bring about a settlement in the long-running battle with Google notes AFP.
