France hits Google with $272M fine over media rules, AI concerns

PARIS (Reuters) : France’s competition watchdog said on Wednesday it fined Alphabet’s Google 250 million euros (nearly $271.2 million) for breaches linked to EU intellectual property rules in its relationship with media publishers, citing concerns about the company’s AI service.

The watchdog said Google’s AI-powered chatbot Bard – since rebranded under the name Gemini – was trained on content from publishers and news agencies without notifying them.

The watchdog said Google has pledged not to contest the facts as part of settlement proceedings, adding that the company also proposed a series of remedy measures for certain shortcomings.

Google said it accepted the settlement “because it is time to move on,” adding, “we want to focus on the larger goal of sustainable approaches to connecting people with quality content and working constructively with French publishers.”

The company said the fine was disproportionate and that the watchdog had not sufficiently considered its efforts “in an environment where it’s very hard to set a course because we can’t predict which way the wind will blow next.”

The fine is linked to a copyright dispute in France over online content, which was triggered by complaints from some of the country’s biggest news organizations, including Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The dispute appeared to be resolved in 2022 when the U.S. tech giant dropped its appeal against an initial 500 million euro fine issued at the end of a major investigation carried out by the Autorite de la concurrence.

However, in Wednesday’s statement, the watchdog said Google violated the terms of four out of seven commitments agreed in the settlement, including negotiating with publishers in good faith and providing transparent information.

The watchdog cited Google’s AI chatbot Bard, launched in 2023, as a particular example. It said the chatbot was trained on data from unspecified media outlets and news agencies without the company informing them or the regulator.

“Subsequently, Google linked the use of the content concerned by its artificial intelligence service to the display of protected content,” the watchdog said, adding that in doing so, Google hindered publishers’ and press agencies’ ability to negotiate fair prices.

The fine comes as many publishers, writers, and newsrooms seek to limit the scraping – or automatic data collection – of their online content by AI services without their consent or fair compensation.

In 2023, the New York Times sued Google rivals Microsoft and OpenAI, the creator of the popular artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT, accusing them of using millions of the newspaper’s articles without permission to help train chatbots.

“We – and others – need more clarity on whom we are paying for what,” Google said.