Google has been penalized with €250mln by France for a breach of agreement and not paying media companies for reproducing their content online.

France’s competition watchdog revealed that Google violated intellectual property rules related to news media publishers and stated that its AI-powered chatbot Bard – rebranded as Gemini – is trained on content from publishers and news agencies without notifying them.

In its statement, the watchdog said it was for “failing to respect commitments made in 2022” and accused Google of not negotiating in “good faith” with news publishers on how much to compensate them for content use. 

The watchdog added that Google pledged not to contest as part of the settlement.

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Recently, the EU established a form of copyright called “neighboring rights” to allow print media to demand compensation for Google and other online platforms using their content, as they make billions off of it without sharing the revenue.

In 2019, France was the first EU country to enact the directive on the publishing rights of media companies and news agencies, requiring large tech platforms to discuss with publishers seeking compensation. 

The newest case was filed from complaints in 2019 from some of France's biggest news organizations representing local magazines and newspapers, in addition to the news agency AFP.

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However, in 2022, French regulators agreed to take Google's word to negotiate with news organizations, but on the condition that it has to provide news groups with an offer of payment within three months of receiving a copyright complaint.

'Time to move on'

The watchdog relayed on Wednesday that Google violated terms relating to four out of seven commitments agreed in the 2022 settlement, including conducting negotiations in good faith and providing transparency.

“Subsequently, Google linked the use of the content concerned by its artificial intelligence service to the display of protected content,” the watchdog said, noting that this hindered the ability of publishers and press agencies to negotiate fair cost.

In response, Google said, “Google is the first and only platform to have signed a significant number of licensing agreements with 280 French news publishers under the European copyright directive. These cover more than 450 of their publications – and pay publishers tens of millions of euros a year.”

“Despite this progress, the French competition authority today imposed a €250m fine on Google for how we have conducted those negotiations. They also insisted on changes to how we negotiate, which we have agreed to as part of a settlement of a long-running case.”

Google expressed that it settled "because it’s time to move on and, as our many agreements with publishers show, we want to focus on the larger goal of sustainable approaches to connecting people with quality content and on working constructively with French publishers. But it’s important to note that the fine is not proportionate to issues raised by the French competition authority.” 

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This is not Google's first run-in with the French authorities. Google and Facebook have been previously fined 110 million euros ($237 million) for their use of "cookies," the data used to track users online, back in 2022.

The 150-million-euro fine imposed on Google was a record for France's National Commission for Information Technology and Freedom (CNIL), surpassing the company's previous cookie-related fine of 100 million euros in December 2020.