French authorities fine Google 250 million euros in copyright battle
On Wednesday, French regulators announced a fine of 250 million euros ($272 million) for Google, citing violations of agreements to compensate media companies for using their content online and for utilizing their material in its AI chatbot without proper notification.
Google had committed in 2022 to negotiate fairly with French news organizations, a year after the competition authority fined the US tech giant 500 million euros over the long-running dispute.
Organizations representing French magazines and newspapers, as well as Agence France-Presse (AFP), had filed a case with the regulator in 2019.
According to its commitments, the US tech giant must provide newsgroups with a transparent payment offer within three months of receiving a copyright complaint.
But the regulator said on Wednesday it would impose a new fine on Google for “failing to comply” with four of the seven commitments made in 2022 and failing to negotiate in “good faith” with news publishers.
The US tech giant also used content from press offices to train its artificial intelligence platform Bard (now called Gemini) without notifying them or the authorities, the regulator said.
Google was unable to provide publishers and news organizations with a technical solution to object to the use of the content, which “impeded” their ability to negotiate a fee, Google added.
The watchdog said Google had agreed “not to dispute the facts” as part of the settlement process and proposed “a series of remedial measures” in response to the deficiencies identified by the authority.
Google said in a statement that the fine was disproportionate and “did not adequately reflect the efforts we have made to respond and resolve the concerns that have been raised – in an environment where it is very difficult to determine direction because we cannot predict which way the wind will blow next.”
“We have agreed because it is time to move on,” the company said, noting that it had signed “a significant number of license agreements” with 280 French news publishers under the European Copyright Directive.
In 2019, the EU created a form of copyright called “neighboring rights” that allows print media to claim compensation for the use of content.
‘Irreplaceable’
France has been a test case for EU rules, and after initial opposition, Google and Facebook agreed to pay some French media outlets for articles shown in online searches.
“Reliable, sourced and trusted information is priceless, but it comes at a price. The competition authority reminded Google of this today,” said Marina Ferrari, the French government’s minister of state for digital affairs.
Former AFP director Pierre Louette, now chief executive of the newspaper group Le Parisien-Les Echos, said: “It would be better to get an even higher fair compensation for the publishers than to continue paying fines to the state.”
Google said that since the law took effect, “a lack of clear regulatory guidance and repeated enforcement actions have made negotiations with publishers difficult.”
The tech company also said “more clarity” is needed on what media it has to pay for, which could include everything from general news outlets to specialist maritime publications or catalogs and comparison sites.
“Now is the time to clarify who and how we should pay so that all parties can chart a course toward a more sustainable business environment,” Google added.
Other European Union countries have also sued Google for its news content.
Last year, the Spanish competition authority launched an investigation into Google for anti-competitive practices targeting news agencies and press publications.
In 2022, Germany’s competition authority dropped an investigation into Google’s News Showcase service after the tech giant made “important changes” to ease competition concerns.
