London, Oct. 29 (ANI): The executive chairman of internet giant Google, Eric Schmidt, is all set to meet with French President Francois Hollande on Monday for talks over a bill that would force search engines to pay for content.
The meeting was scheduled after threats from Google saying it would exclude French media sites from its search results if the country's government passes the bill, reports the Daily Mail.
Google sent letters to several French ministerial offices earlier this month saying that it "cannot accept" such a move and that the company "as a consequence would be required to no longer reference French sites".
Google said a law which would require it to pay media sites for displaying links to their content would "threaten (Google's) very existence".
Top French newspaper publishers last month called on the government to adopt a law imposing a settlement in the long-running row with Google, forcing it to share some of the advertising revenue from user searches for news contained on media websites.
The call came after politicians in Germany approved a draft legislation back in August that would see search engines pay commissions to German media sites.
French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti said she was in favour of the idea last week, describing it as "a tool that it seems important to me to develop".
Filippetti, who was surprised by the tone of the letter from Google, said: "You don't deal with a democratically-elected government with threats."
According to the source, Schmidt will also meet with Filippetti before meeting with Hollande. (ANI)