France Imposes $272M Fine on Google for Using News Articles to Train AI Models

The French competition authority has imposed a significant fine of $272 million on Google for violating an agreement with publishers regarding the unauthorized reproduction of content online. The Autorité de la Concurrence ruled that Google utilized media content from press agencies to train its Bard chatbot—now rebranded as Gemini—without obtaining the necessary permissions.

The regulator emphasized that Google did not provide publishers with a viable option to opt out of having their content used for AI training. This lack of an opt-out mechanism hindered press agencies and publishers from negotiating fair compensation for their work. Notably, Google only implemented a technical solution allowing press agencies to opt out of AI training in September 2023, six months post the launch of Bard.

Prior to this change, publishers and press agencies wishing to exclude their content from Google’s AI training had to add an instruction to block all crawling of their material across various Google services, including Search, Discover, and Google News. The authority highlighted that these services were pivotal for negotiating related rights remuneration.

In response to the ruling, Google chose not to contest the findings as part of a settlement agreement but labeled the fine as "disproportionate." Sulina Connal, Google’s managing director for news and publishing partnerships, expressed that the competition authority did not account for the significant efforts made by Google to address publishers' concerns.

Connal further pointed out the absence of clear regulations surrounding AI training rules complicates negotiations with publishers. She noted that ongoing legal uncertainties hinder Google’s ability to plan future investments in information services within France.

The conflict between Google and publishers can be traced back to 2019, when major news outlets in France raised concerns that online aggregators were not providing fair remuneration under EU law. The 2019 EU Copyright Directive mandated online platforms to compensate press publishers for displaying their news content. In a proactive move, France was among the first EU countries to enforce these rules, leading to negotiations that initially faced resistance from Google and other platforms. However, by 2020, the French competition authority directed Google to negotiate licensing agreements with publishers.

In July 2021, Google was fined $510 million for failing to comply with these directives. Subsequently, in 2022, a formal agreement was finally established between Google and the publishers, illustrating the complex and evolving landscape of digital content rights and compensation in the age of AI technology.