In an ongoing conflict between France’s competition authority and Google regarding copyright protections for news snippets, the Autorité de la Concurrence imposed a hefty €250 million fine against Google on Wednesday.
The competition watchdog accused Google of neglecting previous commitments made with news publishers. The decision to fine Google was reached after they found out the tech giant used news publishers’ data to train its generative AI model, Gemini, possibly without obtaining the rights to do so.
The competition authority reprimanded Google for failing to notify news publishers about its use of their copyrighted content for training its AI. This omission starkly contrasts Google’s earlier commitments to ensure fair negotiations with publishers regarding content reuse.
The Autorité has also criticized Google for its failure to provide a technical solution allowing publishers to opt out of their content being used to train Bard without affecting its display on other Google services.
In 2019, the European Union enacted a comprehensive digital copyright reform extending protections to news headlines and snippets. Previously, news aggregators like Google News had been scraping and displaying news stories without compensating publishers.
Google initially tried to circumvent the law by shutting down Google News in France. However, the competition authority intervened, deeming this unilateral action an abuse of dominant market position.
Because of this, Google was compelled to negotiate with local publishers, and by 2021, Google faced a substantial fine of $592 million for serious breaches in its negotiations with local publishers and agencies.
Despite initially contesting the sanction, Google later sought to settle the dispute, offering commitments that the French Autorité accepted. These commitments include providing essential information to publishers and engaging in fair negotiations.
Although Google has entered copyright agreements with many publishers in France under the Autorité’s oversight, its operations are still tightly regulated.
Google has chosen not to challenge the Autorité’s recent findings in exchange for expedited proceedings and a financial penalty. However, Sulina Connal, Google’s managing director for news and publishing partnerships, expressed discontent, stating in a blog post that the fine doesn’t proportionally reflect the issues raised by the authority.
Google seems eager to bring an end to this saga, with Connal emphasizing the company’s focus on sustainable approaches to connecting users with quality content and constructive collaboration with French publishers.
Google’s defense revolves around Article 4 of the EU Copyright Directive, which provides exceptions for text and data mining. However, Autorité maintains that it’s yet to determine whether this exemption applies in this case.
The incoming EU AI legislation will impose transparency requirements on developers, ensuring compliance with copyright rules and facilitating fair remuneration for news publishers.
