France: The French competition authority has fined Google 250 million euros ($272 million) after breaching content licensing commitments with media firms.
According to the French competition watchdog, the fines were imposed as part of further benchmarks in a 2019 lawsuit filed against the United States tech giant and other online platforms by organisations representing French magazines and newspapers. Media accused tech firms of making billions from their content without sharing revenue with aggregators.
In 2021, Google was fined 500 million euros ($592 million) by the authority for failing to negotiate in good faith. The brawl appeared to be settled in 2022 when the company dropped its plea against the fine. The new statement from the authority says that Google breached four of seven commitments it consented to in the agreement, including dealing with publishers ‘in good faith’ and delivering translucent details.
Bard, Google’s AI-powered chatbot rebranded as Gemini, trained on content from publishers and news agencies without their knowledge, the watchdog added. Google vowed not to compete with the verities as part of the compromise proceedings, and the watchdog stated that the company also suggested several solutions to some of the deficiencies.
The tech giant remarked that it accepted the settlement ‘because it is time to move on.’ “We want to focus on the larger goal of sustainable approaches to connecting people with quality content and on working constructively with French publishers,” it added.
As a result, it defined the fine as disproportionate and pointed out that the watchdog had not adequately considered its efforts ‘in an environment where it’s very hard to set a course because we can’t predict which way the wind will blow next.’
As a result of Google’s failure to comply with the lawful framework of the European Union, this is the fourth sentence against it. It aims to demonstrate ‘the necessary conditions for balanced negotiations between press agencies, publishers, and digital platforms.
According to a 2019 EU-created copyright called ‘neighbouring rights’, print media are allowed to demand compensation for using their content. France is a trial suit for the rules, and after initial opposition, Google and Facebook agreed to pay some French media outlets for content that shows up in web searches.
The latest penalties come as publishers, writers, and newsrooms exert pressure on AI services not to scrape their content or automatically collect their data without their consent. Several other EU countries also questioned Google over its news content.
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