CRTC has granted Google a five-year exemption

OTTAWA — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has granted Google a five-year exemption

from the Online News Act, ordering it to release the $100 million it now owes to Canadian news outlets within 60 days. Google agreed last year to pay Canadian news publishers $100 million a year, indexed to inflation, in order to be exempt from the law, which compels tech companies to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay for content reposted on their platforms.