French authorities have fined Google €250 million ($270 million) for breaking a deal about payment to media businesses for the online reproduction of their material.
The US online giant's penalties levied by French authorities are connected to a copyright dispute involving French online material. Significant French news companies, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), filed objections to this disagreement. A regulatory group also raised worries about Google's AI service, according to The Guardian.
After a thorough examination by the Autorité de la Concurrence, the Google abandoned its appeal against an original €500 million punishment in 2022, giving the impression that the dispute had been addressed.
(Photo : LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)
A picture taken on November 20, 2017 shows logos of US multinational technology company Google displayed on computers' screens.
Google Breached Multiple Agreements
French authorities revealed in a statement on Wednesday that Google had violated four out of the seven agreements included in the settlement. Among these violations were the inability to engage in sincere negotiations with publishers and the lack of information transparency, per France24.
The competition authority claims that without the publishers' or news agencies' permission, Google's AI-powered chatbot Bard-later renamed Gemini-was trained on their material.
The watchdog said that Google did not bargain in "good faith" with news publishers over payment for the use of their material and explained in a statement that the punishment was levied for "failing to respect commitments made in 2022."
The watchdog also said that, as part of settlement negotiations, Google had promised not to dispute the facts and had put out plans to fix several flaws.
In response to what it sees as the dominance of large tech corporations in distributing news information or showing news items in online searches, France has been working to protect the publication rights and income of its press and news organizations.
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The EU created "neighboring rights," a kind of copyright that enables print media to demand payment for the use of their material, to solve this problem. France has led EU regulation implementation. It was the first EU nation to pass the regulation on media businesses and news agencies' publication rights in 2019, requiring giant internet platforms to negotiate with publishers for news content usage. Google and Facebook then decided to pay some French media outlets for stories that appeared in search results.
US Tech Giant Disputes Massive Fine
In 2019, French periodicals, newspapers, and AFP complained about online material copyright, leading to the latest penalties. French authorities took Google at its word in 2022 to negotiate fairly with newsgroups. But according to the competition watchdog, Google broke four of the seven promises made in the 2022 settlement, including being transparent and engaging in good-faith negotiations with publishers.
The watchdog singled out Google's AI chatbot Bard and claimed that without the companies' knowledge or consent, it learned from data from unidentified news agencies and media sites.
In reaction to the penalty, Google said that it 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." The tech juggernaut pledged to collaborate with French publishers and promote sustainable content delivery. Google did, however, also state that it disagreed with the French competition authority's fine's proportionality.
These updates follow Google's announcement of several regulations and protections aimed at preventing AI misinformation in its apps and products during the next election season. Both AI-generated political advertisements and videos will have suitable labels for viewers, as previously reported by TechTimes.
Before the US and Indian elections, Google restricted AI chatbot Gemini from answering election-related questions and prompts to prevent it from spreading falsehoods.
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