Google has been fined €250 million (approximately $270 million) by France’s competition authority, Autorité de la Concurrence, over its failure to comply with the country’s copyright laws, particularly concerning the use of news publishers’ content. This development is part of an ongoing saga between Google and the French regulator, rooted in the broader context of digital copyright reform across the European Union, which aimed to extend copyright protections to include news snippets and headlines.
Core of the Conflict
In 2019, the European Union enacted a digital copyright reform that expanded copyright protections, requiring news aggregators like Google News to compensate news publishers for the use of their content. Google initially responded by disabling Google News in France, which the Autorité de la Concurrence deemed an abuse of its dominant market position, harmful to publishers. This action led Google to negotiate content reuse agreements with local publishers, a process that has been fraught with conflict and resulted in a $592 million fine in 2021 for Google’s failure to adhere to its commitments during these negotiations.
The Autorité’s recent fine is particularly notable for highlighting Google’s use of copyrighted news content to train its generative AI model, Bard (also known as Gemini), without informing the news publishers or the authority itself. This move contravenes earlier commitments Google made to ensure fair compensation for the reuse of publishers’ content.
Google’s Response and Actions
Despite expressing discontent with the fine, labeling it as “disproportionate,” Google has decided not to appeal the decision. The company has opted for a fast-track process and agreed to make a monetary payment. Sulina Connal, Google’s managing director for news and publishing partnerships, emphasized the company’s intention to focus on sustainable content sharing models and constructive work with French publishers, indicating a desire to move past these disputes.
The Autorité criticized Google not only for its use of copyrighted content in AI training without proper notification but also for failing to offer a technical means for publishers to opt out of such use. Until September 2023, publishers wishing to prevent their content from being used to train Google’s AI had to employ a method that would also block their content from appearing in Google’s search and news services. This issue was addressed when Google introduced a more nuanced opt-out mechanism.
Detailed Issues and Implications
The Autorité has taken issue with various aspects of Google’s practices beyond AI training use. It criticized the company for not providing publishers with clear information about the methodology used to calculate compensation, for discriminatory practices in its remuneration policies, and for failing to fulfill its commitments to update remuneration contracts in accordance with its pledges.
The competition authority’s decision underscores the need for compliance with copyright laws in the age of AI and digital content distribution. It also points to the ongoing challenges in ensuring fair compensation for content creators in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
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