France’s competition watchdog has slapped Google with a substantial fine of 250 million euros ($271.73 million) for violating EU intellectual property rules in its dealings with media publishers. The Autorite de la Concurrence raised concerns about Google’s AI service, particularly its chatbot Bard, which has since been rebranded as Gemini.
The watchdog revealed that Google’s chatbot was trained using content from publishers and news agencies without their knowledge or consent. Despite Google not contesting the facts and proposing solutions to address the issues, the fine was still imposed. The tech giant’s office in France has yet to comment on the situation.
This penalty stems from a copyright conflict in France over online content, triggered by complaints from major news organizations like Agence France Presse (AFP). While a previous fine of 500 million euros was dropped in 2022 after Google’s appeal, the recent breach of settlement commitments led to the new fine.
The Autorite de la Concurrence pointed out that Google failed to negotiate with publishers in good faith and provide transparent information, violating key terms of the agreement. In particular, the AI chatbot Bard was highlighted as causing harm by linking content to protected material without authorization, hindering fair negotiations with publishers and press agencies.
This incident underscores the ongoing struggle of publishers and news outlets to protect their online content from unauthorized scraping by AI services. Notably, The New York Times took legal action in 2023 against Google’s competitors Microsoft and OpenAI for allegedly using its articles without consent to train chatbots.
With this latest development, it is evident that Google’s practices concerning AI and content usage will continue to face scrutiny and regulatory oversight in the digital landscape.
