Google got a hefty €250 million fine from French regulators for not following through on promises to pay media companies for using their stuff online.
The French watchdog said Google broke the rules about using news content and also raised concerns about its AI service.
Google’s chatbot Bard, now called Gemini, was trained on stuff from publishers without asking them.
The fine was for not sticking to promises made in 2022 and for not being fair when dealing with news publishers about payment.
Google promised not to argue about the facts and suggested ways to fix things.
France has been fighting to protect its news industry from big tech companies making money from news without sharing it.
The EU made rules so print media can demand payment for their stuff. France was the first to make these rules real.
Google and Facebook agreed to pay some French media for showing their stuff in search results.
The fine is related to a fight about online stuff in France. It started with complaints from big news organizations in 2019.
In 2022, French regulators made Google promise to deal fairly with news groups.
Google had to offer payment within three months of a complaint about copyright.
The fight seemed over in 2022 when Google stopped fighting against a €500 million fine.
The watchdog said Google broke four out of seven promises made in 2022. This includes not dealing fairly and not being clear.
Google’s AI chatbot Bard was trained on media stuff without asking, which made it harder for publishers to get fair payment.
Google said it has deals with many French news publishers, paying them tens of millions of euros yearly.
They settled to move forward but think the fine is unfair and doesn’t consider their efforts to fix the issues.