© AFP
The French competition authority imposes a new fine of 250 million euros on Google. The American internet group would not fulfill its commitments regarding neighboring rights to news reports, the watchdog says.
In 2021, the Autorité de la concurrence already imposed a fine of 500 million euros on Google in connection with neighboring rights. That would not have negotiated “in good faith” with publishers and news agencies about neighboring rights to news reports, excerpts of which the internet group publishes.
In mid-2022, Google entered into seven commitments to respond to the concerns of the competition watchdog in the file: this includes negotiating in good faith and transparency towards publishers and news agencies. The regulator – which hired a consultant to monitor it – now says that Google failed to meet four of those seven criteria.
The Autorité de la concurrence points in particular to Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot, which was launched in July 2023 as Bard but has since been renamed Gemini. The group “used content from publishers and news agencies to train its AI model, without informing them or the competition authority,” the regulator denounces, and the chat robot then also reproduced protected content.
The publishers and news agencies were not given the opportunity to oppose the use of their texts by Bard, without this also having an impact on the display of their content on other Google services. That “undermined the ability of publishers and news agencies to negotiate compensation,” it said.
The Autorité de la concurrence has therefore now imposed a new fine totaling 250 million euros on Google and parent company Alphabet. According to the watchdog, the American group has indicated that it does not dispute the facts and has proposed “a series of corrective measures”.