[tylerl]

Right, so like I said, their only benefit is to their brand. It preserves the expectation that Google is the best place to find everything.

And the French law applies to all companies in Google's position, not just to Google. So the there's still nowhere better than Google for users to go.

The only losers in this deal are the French news agencies, and perhaps French users if you consider them worse off for not finding French news sources.

[endorphone]

No it isn't "like you said". You made the absolutely absurd claim that they don't make any money off it. Even if we accept the ridiculous notion that it's just brand, that's still a very valuable input.

So French users go to French media sites. I'm not really seeing the big loser here beyond Google, which is exactly why they've fought this so hard and for so long (despite, by your take, making no money on it).

[Mirioron]

I don't think that the alternative to French users on Google News are French news sites. I think the alternative is a non-European news site on Google News instead.

[endorphone]

This seems extraordinarily unlikely if you know the French.

[hartator]

Technically if you buy Google News from Google, you won’t make any money as-is. So OP is not wrong.