Google faces €250 million fine in France: copyright controversy and legal challenges to AI use

Recently, according to international media reports, Google is once again facing a major legal challenge for violating the European Union's intellectual property laws, specifically infringing on the copyrights of news media organizations, and the relevant French regulator has imposed a fine of up to €250 million. The fine marks the fourth time in the past few years that the French competition regulator has taken action against Google for violating copyright regulations.

Specifically, French regulators noted that Google used content from French publishers and news organizations to train its AI chatbot, formerly known as Bard and later renamed Gemini, without permission.This action was deemed to violate EU legal provisions on intellectual property rights. The specifics of the violation include failing to comply with four key terms of a settlement agreement reached in 2022, which required Google to engage in fair negotiations with the publishers in question and provide transparent information.

In fact, this is not the first time Google has been penalized for such issues. Back in April 2020, France's antitrust agency had issued an interim order requiring Google to begin negotiations with news publishers on fair payment for news content within three months. Continued non-compliance with these regulations resulted in Google being fined €500 million (approximately $592 million) in 2021 for failing to properly negotiate fair payment for published content.

In its latest statement, the French Competition Authority emphasized that in order to reach a settlement, Google has promised not to defend itself against these violations and has proposed a series of measures aimed at correcting the shortcomings of its products and services.

In addition, according to AFP, many publishers, authors, and news organizations around the world have been struggling with the fact that certain AI services are collecting large amounts of their online content and using it without notice, not to mention the fact that these services usually don't pay for it. France has been at the forefront of efforts to protect the copyright rights of these groups and to oppose any company using their content commercially without permission. Google is not the only platform facing such allegations; many others have been accused in recent years of using authors' works without their consent and profiting from them to the tune of billions of dollars.