- French antitrust authorities have fined Google €250 million for copyright infringement.
- The authority said that the internet company used content from French publishing houses and news agencies to train its artificial intelligence without informing it.
- As part of the settlement, Alphabet's Google agreed not to dispute the facts and to make suggestions to correct certain deficiencies.
The company said it accepted the settlement “because it is time to move on.” “We want to work constructively with French publishers.” However, the amount of the fine is disproportionate.
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Google isn't the only tech company being sued by media companies.
Keystone/Eric S. Lesser
The investigation into the cartel was launched due to complaints from large French media companies such as the Agence France-Presse (AFP). The dispute initially appeared to be settled in 2022 when Google withdrew its objection to a €500 million fine.
No chance of fair prices
In its current decision, the consensus body accused the American company of ignoring four of the seven points contained in the agreement at the time. She made particular reference to the “Bard” artificial intelligence, which was introduced last year and has since been renamed “Gemini.” Because Google did not inform publishers that the software had been trained on their content, they were not given the opportunity to negotiate fair rates.
Other media companies are also taking action against technology companies. The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT developer OpenAI because it illegally used millions of newspaper articles to train a chatbot.
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