French authorities have fined Google $270M(About 250M Euro) for breaking its commitment to paying media outlets to use their data in search results and references. A report also mentioned that Google used publishers’ data to train Gemini without informing the owners.
Google was the only platform to sign licensing agreements with 280 French press publishers and almost 450 publications under the European Copyright Directive (EUCD) paying them tens of millions of euros yearly to cover the copyrights.
Google France Blog mentioned “We have compromised because it is time to turn the page and, as our numerous agreements with publishers prove, we want to focus on sustainable approaches to connect Internet users with quality content and work constructively with publishers. “
The Competition Authority fined Google because it didn’t follow four of the seven obligatory commitments under the decision 22-D -13 of June 21, 2022.
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Neighboring Rights And Commitments
In 2019 the EU introduced “Neighboring Rights” which made print media capable of demanding compensation for using their content and this was in trial phases in France. Google agreed to pay French Media for using their articles or news in searches. In 2022, a new commitment was made by Google, which says that Google should offer news publishers a transparent offer of payment within three months of receiving a copyright claim.
Google didn’t regard the commitments and used publishers’ data to train its AI chatbot Bard, currently known as Gemini. So Google failed to provide a proper solution for publishers, allowing them to object to using their content by Google.
In response, Google proposed effective measures in response to identified failings to solve this dispute which has gone too far.