Technology – Dispute over intellectual property rights: France imposes millions in fines on Google

Google logo Photo: Agence France-Presse

In the dispute over Google's use of journalistic content, the French Competition Authority imposed a fine of 250 million euros on the Internet giant. The company ignored many voluntary commitments.

In the dispute over Google's use of journalistic content, the French Competition Authority imposed a fine of 250 million euros on the Internet giant. The company ignored many of the voluntary commitments it made in 2021, according to the reasons published in Paris on Wednesday. Among other things, Google used content from publishers and news agencies without consultation to train its AI application Bard (now known as Gemini).

So-called protective rights, derived from copyright, were introduced in 2019 under the EU Digital Platforms Directive. It enables newspapers, magazines and news agencies to receive compensation if their content is reused online by companies like Google. These include search engine results. France was the first country to turn this directive into national law.

The French Competition Authority had already imposed a fine of 500 million euros on Google in 2021 because Google did not negotiate “in good faith” with newspaper publishers. In recent years, Google has signed several framework agreements on content reuse in France, including with Agence France-Presse.

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