A Mexico City court on Friday ordered Google to pay $245 million to a Mexican lawyer who said the US tech giant allowed the spread of a blog accusing him of money laundering.

Google said it would appeal the ruling. “We regret the conviction,” Google said in a brief statement received by AFP, confirming the 5 billion pesos (€234.25 million) fine.

Google said the ruling was “arbitrary, excessive, and without any basis. Google will defend itself before the final trial.”
The complainant, Mexican lawyer Ulrich Richter Morales, accused the tech platform of allowing the dissemination of a blog that suggested he was involved in money laundering, influence peddling and falsification of documents.

Richter Morales said he asked Google to remove anonymous bloggers in 2015. He then sued for moral damages and won in a lower court. The case could go all the way to the Supreme Court.

In a statement, Google said the June 13 ruling by a Mexican court “undermined freedom of speech and other fundamental principles.” Google has faced several such complaints in other countries.

In early June, the Federal Court of Australia ordered Google to pay more than €466,000 ($487,700) to an Australian politician who believed a comedian was defaming him on Google-owned YouTube in a video.