OTTAWA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - A Canadian regulator said on

Wednesday it will impose a fee on Google to recover the cost of

enforcing a law that requires large internet platforms to pay

for news content on their websites.

The imposition of the levy on the Mountain View,

California-based search engine giant comes at a time of

increased tension between Canada and the United States over

trade, border security, and a digital services tax on U.S.

technology firms.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications

Commission said the vast majority of its operations are funded

by fees charged to the companies it regulates, and the cost

recovery rule for the Online News Act will come into effect from

April 1. The charge may vary from year to year and does not have

an upper limit.

The CRTC finalized the rule after a period of public

consultations, during which Google intervened to argue against

its implementation saying it was "not a rational approach" to

impose 100% of the costs on one entity.

Part of a global trend to make internet giants pay for news,

Canada passed the law last year to address media industry

concerns that tech companies were elbowing news businesses out

of the online advertising market.

Only Alphabet's Google and Facebook-parent Meta

met the threshold of a large enough company that would

need to pay news organizations.

Google, after months of negotiations with the government,

agreed to pay C$100 million annually in a deal with publishers

to keep news stories in search results. Meta, however, decided

to block news from its Facebook and Instagram platforms in

Canada to avoid payments.

Google, among other comments in its submission to the CRTC,

argued the rule was "an unfair additional regulatory burden on a

company that has continued to support the news ecosystem in this

country."

In a policy notice posted to its website on Wednesday, the

CRTC said due to the structure of the Online News Act, the

recovery costs can only be levied on the digital platforms to

which the law applies.

Google declined to comment beyond its response submitted

during the CRTC consultation.