French competition authority hits Google with $272 million fine for copyright breaches
Alphabet’s Google was fined 250 million euros ($272 million) for violations related to European Union intellectual property rules by the French competition watchdog, on Wednesday (Mar 20). The breaches are linked to a 2022 agreement about paying media companies to reproduce their content online and use it for their AI-powered chatbot.
About the fine
According to the French competition watchdog, Google’s AI-powered chatbot Bard – rebranded as Gemini – has been trained using content from publishers and news agencies, without notifying them.
This comes after the EU, in 2019, following accusations that Google and other tech giants made billions from news without sharing the revenue with those who gathered it, introduced a form of copyright called “neighbouring rights”.
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The measure allows news organisations to demand compensation from tech giants after writers and publishers sought to limit the automatic collection of data by AI of their content online without their consent for fair compensation.
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The fine comes after organisations, representing French magazines and newspapers, including the news agency AFP filed complaints against the United States-based tech giant with the France’s Competition Authority in 2019.
What does Google plan to do?
The French watchdog, in a statement, said that Google pledged not to contest the facts as part of settlement proceedings and also proposed a series of measures to remedy some of the shortcomings.
In 2022, the dispute seemed to have been solved after the authority accepted commitments from Google to negotiate with the news organisations and the US tech giant dropped its appeal against an initial 500 million euro fine.
However, the Autorité de la Concurrence (French competition authority), on Wednesday said that Google violated four out of the seven terms agreed upon two years ago, which included conducting negotiations with the publishers in “good faith.”
Also Read |Google to shell out $350 million to settle data privacy lawsuit
The watchdog said that Google used content from press agencies to train its Bard chatbot, launched in 2023, without the company informing them or the regulator.
According to the French regulators, the tech giant also failed to provide a technical solution to publishers and news agencies that allowed them to object to the use of their content and “linked the use of the content concerned by its artificial intelligence service to the display of protected content.”
This, according to the watchdog,hindered the ability of publishers and news agencies to negotiate remuneration with Google, whichviolated the 2022 agreement.
(With inputs from agencies)