Google has rubbished claims that it has been forced to pay a €34m (£22.7m) fine because it failed to act quickly enough to satisfy a court ruling. 

"I can confirm that it is completely untrue," a Google spokeswoman told vnunet.com.   

The rumours surfaced on the internet and in the Dutch press about the copyright case brought by Copiepresse in Belgium.  

Google was told to remove the publishers represented by Copiepresse from its Google.be and Google News Belgium websites. 

The search giant was originally forced to display the 2,300 word court ruling on its website for five days or face a fine of €500,000 (£336,000) per day, with which it complied.