Back in April last year, the company agreed to comply with a ruling that it must pay publishing companies and news agencies for re-using content they produce.

The agreement is based on the EU Copyright Directive that came into force last year.

Initially, Google said it would restrict its usage to headlines and not pay anything to publishers but the competition authority ruled that this would be an abuse of Google's monopoly law.

An Australian effort to get Google to pay has progressed into Parliament and a Senate hearing is being conducted today to hear opinions from all sides in the debate.

Google has said that it is unwilling to accept what has been drafted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and presented to Parliament.

The French success is likely to lead to other members of the EU bloc also seeking similar deals with the search giant.

Pierre Louette, chief executive of Groupe Les Echos – Le Parisien and president of the Alliance de la Presse d'Information Générale, said: "After long months of negotiations, this agreement is an important milestone, which marks the effective recognition of the neighboring rights of press publishers and the beginning of their remuneration by digital platforms for the use of their online publications"

Sébastien Missoffe, chief executive of Google France, said: “Today’s agreement with APIG is a major step forward. It confirms Google's commitment to compensate publishers appropriately under French law, and opens up new opportunities for our publisher partners. We are happy to contribute to the development of news publishers in the digital age, to further support journalism.”