The body considers that the American giant did not negotiate “in good faith” with press publishers to assess their remuneration under these related rights.
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This is a heavy penalty. The French Competition Authority announced on Wednesday March 20 that it had imposed a fine of 250 million euros on Google “for the non-compliance with some of its commitments made in June 2022” aiming to “establish a neighboring right for the benefit of press agencies and publishers”. It considers in particular, in its decision dated March 15, that the American tech giant did not negotiate “in good faith” with press publishers to assess their remuneration under these related rights, explains the press release.
The instance adds that Google “n / A not fully communicated the information necessary to publishers and news agencies to successfully complete a negotiation. Additionally, she found that the group had used “content from publishers and press agencies” to train its Bard artificial intelligence application, “without notifying them or the Authority”. This decision was taken after a transaction procedure, “Google having undertaken not to dispute the facts”specifies the Competition Authority.
Rights framed by a European directive
Rights related to copyright were established for digital platforms in 2019 by a European directive. They allow newspapers, magazines or press agencies to be paid when their content is reused on the internet by giants like Google, whose search engine displays press extracts in its results pages.
In July 2021, the Competition Authority had already fined Google 500 million euros for not having negotiated “in good faith” with press publishers. 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.
