The American giant was sanctioned for non-compliance with commitments made in 2022 on neighboring rights. But also for the use of press content in its artificial intelligence application.
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Google is once again sanctioned by the French Competition Authority over related rights. Established in 2019 by a European directive, this mechanism allows remuneration for media content reused online by digital giants like Google, whose search engine displays press extracts in its results pages.
In July 2021, the Competition Authority had already ordered Google to 500 million euros fine for not having negotiated “ in good faith » with press editors. It subsequently put an end to the contentious procedure opposing it to the French media by accepting the commitments made in June 2022 by the American giant.
But the Competition Authority has just sanctioned Google with a fine of 250 million euros. for non-compliance with some of its commitments made in June 2022 “, she announced in a press release on Wednesday March 20. A decision taken after a transaction procedure, “ Google having undertaken not to dispute the facts », Specified the institution.
Breaches
This time, she criticizes the American giant “ for not having respected four of its seven commitments ”, and in particular for not having negotiated “ in good faith » with press publishers to assess their remuneration under these related rights. The Competition Authority also points to failures in taking the necessary measures so that “ the negotiations do not affect other existing economic relations » between them and Google. Additionally, she found that the group had used “ content from publishers and press agencies ” to train its artificial intelligence application Bard (since renamed Gemini, Editor’s note), “ without notifying them or the Authority “.
These last years, Google signed an agreement with the collective management organization DVP and two framework agreements: one with the Alliance for the general information press (Apig, which brings together nearly 300 national, regional and local daily press titles) and another with the Union magazine press publishers (SEPM, which represents 80 publishers for more than 400 titles). AFP signed an agreement with Google at the end of 2021 on neighboring rights which remunerates the agency for five years for its content presented by the American giant, as well as two commercial contracts, also signed for five years.