PARIS— Alphabet Inc.’s Google agreed to pay a fine of nearly $270 million as part of a settlement with French regulators of one of the first antitrust cases globally to allege the tech company abused its leading role in the digital advertising sector.
France’s competition authority said Monday that, in addition to imposing the fine, it has accepted Google’s GOOGL, +1.96% proposed commitments to settle the case, which include promises to make it easier for competitors to use its online-ad tools.
Google’s commitments will be binding for three years, the authority said.
A Google spokeswoman didn’t immediately have any comment. The company has previously said that its advertising-technology tools work with competitors’ products, but added that it also regularly updates its systems based on outside feedback “to better serve users and the wider ecosystem.”
While Google’s commitments are only binding in France, they could become a template for how Google will resolve similar complaints from publishers and advertising-technology rivals elsewhere—leading to changes in how Google operates its system around the world. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Google had proposed a settlement in the case.
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