France imposes €250m fine on Google for IP breaches

Regulator accuses American tech company of not negotiating fairly with publishers regarding their content

Google has been fined €250 million by French regulators for violating intellectual property rules related to news media publishers. The competition watchdog accused the US tech company of not negotiating fairly with publishers over compensation for using their content online. Additionally, the regulator expressed concerns about Google’s AI service, stating that the company’s chatbot Bard, now known as Gemini, was trained on content from publishers and news agencies without their consent. The fine was imposed for “failing to respect commitments made in 2022” and for not negotiating in “good faith” with news publishers.

Google has agreed not to contest the facts in settlement proceedings, according to the watchdog. The company has also proposed several measures to address certain deficiencies.

For years, France has been fighting to protect the publishing rights and revenue of its press and news agencies against what it sees as the dominance of powerful tech companies that use news content or display news stories in web searches. Google and other online platforms have been accused of profiting from news without sharing the revenue with those who produce it.

To address this issue, the EU introduced a form of copyright known as “neighbouring rights,” which allows print media to request compensation for the use of their content.

France has served as a test case for EU regulations. In 2019, it became the first EU nation to implement the directive on publishing rights for media companies and news agencies. This directive required large tech platforms to engage in discussions with publishers seeking compensation for the use of news content. Despite initial reluctance, both Google and Facebook eventually agreed to pay some French media outlets for articles displayed in web searches.

The recent fine is related to a copyright dispute in France regarding online content. The case originated from complaints in 2019 by some of the country’s largest news organizations, including French magazines and newspapers, as well as the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In 2022, French regulators approved Google’s commitments to engage in fair negotiations with news organizations.

As part of the agreement, Google is required to present news groups with a clear payment proposal within three months of receiving a copyright complaint.

The dispute seemed to be settled in 2022 when Google withdrew its appeal against an initial €500m fine imposed after an investigation by the French competition authority. Google had strongly opposed the notion of paying for content and was fined €500m in 2021 for allegedly failing to negotiate in good faith.

In its statement on Wednesday, the watchdog stated that Google had violated four out of seven commitments from the 2022 settlement. These violations included not negotiating with publishers in good faith and not providing transparent information.

The watchdog specifically mentioned Google’s AI chatbot Bard, launched in 2023, which it claimed was trained on data from undisclosed media outlets and news agencies without notifying them or the regulator.

“Subsequently, Google linked the use of this content by its artificial intelligence service to the display of protected content,” the watchdog explained, stating that by doing so, Google impeded the ability of publishers and press agencies to negotiate fair prices.

The fine comes at a time when many publishers, writers, and newsrooms are seeking to restrict the scraping of their online content by AI services, which collect data automatically without their consent or providing fair compensation.

Google responded in a statement, saying, “Google is the first and only platform to have signed a significant number of licensing agreements with 280 French news publishers under the European copyright directive. These cover more than 450 of their publications and pay publishers tens of millions of euros a year. Despite this progress, the French Competition Authority today imposed a €250m fine on Google for how we have conducted those negotiations. They also insisted on changes to how we negotiate, which we have agreed to as part of a settlement of a long-running case.”