France’s competition watchdog, Autorité de la Concurrence, has fined Google €250 million ($271 million) for failing to reach agreements with news outlets regarding publishing links to their content.
According to a TechCrunch report, authorities alleged that Google used press articles to train its artificial intelligence technology without notifying publishers or the regulator.
This is not the first time something like this is happening with Google, in 2020, it received a €500 million fine from the same authority for similar concerns.
The Autorité de la Concurrence claims that Google did not negotiate in good faith with news publishers concerning compensation for using their content through linked articles. The regulator also alleges that Google utilised press content to train Gemini.
In a blog post responding to the fine, Google stated that it believes the penalty is disproportionate and does not adequately reflect its efforts to address the raised concerns.
