Google has agreed to pay €60m to help French publishers, as part of a settlement over a long-running tax dispute in the country.
The dispute stems from the French government attempting to place a tax on Google’s advertising revenues and Google responded by threatening to exclude French publishers from its search results.
The two new initiatives are aimed at assisting France with digital innovation and raising advertising revenue.
The agreement, signed by Google chairman Eric Schmidt and French president Francois Hollande, means Google will help fund the development of the French media on the Internet – a move France has long been pushing toward, in the hope that Google would pay licensing fees for the headlines and summaries used in its search results.
“This exciting announcement builds on the commitments we made in 2011 to increase our investment in France, including our Cultural Institute in Paris to help preserve amazing cultural treasures such as the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Schmidt said in a blog entry.
More than simply financing its Web expansion, Google will also help publishers increase revenue using its advertising technology.
“These agreements show that through business and technology partnerships we can help stimulate digital innovation for the benefit of consumers, our partners, and the wider Web,” Schmidt said.
He made no direct mention of a settlement in the blog, but Google’s news points to the resolution of a case in which news publishers accused Google of copyright infringement for linking to news articles.
Hollande said a deal that avoided a tax on Google is a significant achievement in the growing digital global economy.
The agreement signed in Paris Friday calls for Google to contribute 60 million euros ($81.8 million) to.
Hollande said in a written statement the deal was “a model for effective partnership and is a pointer to the future in the global digital economy.”
Google reached a similar deal last month with Belgian newspaper publishers, and additional deals were expected this year with other European media companies, Radio France Internationale said.
Read the official blog here