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March 20, 2024

The Open Internet Project welcomes French Competition Authority's decision to fine Google €250 million for non-compliance of related rights

All the members of the European association Open Internet Project (OIP) welcome the decision taken by the French Competition Authority (ADLC) to fine Google €250 million for non-compliance with its commitments, made mandatory within the legislative framework relating to related rights.

This is the fourth decision issued by the ADLC since the adoption of the French law of 24 July 2019 on related rights against Google, which continues to violate a particularly important law, aiming to create the necessary conditions for balanced negotiations between press agencies, publishers and digital platforms, and to address the profound changes affecting the press sector, and the fact that a significant share of advertising value is now held by the major digital platforms.

"We've always been committed to supporting the press, and we never cease to point out that there's a huge gap between audience share and market share in France, largely in favor of major platforms such as Google and Facebook. This is a fundamental imbalance - worth hundreds of millions of euros - that must be remedied to protect quality information and pluralism. It's a democratic issue! Google constantly violates our laws and does not respect the commitments imposed on it to re-establish fair competition on the digital market. I commend the determination and courage of the ADLC, which will let nothing go by!"

underlines Léonidas Kalogeropoulos

General Delegate of the OIP

"I'm particularly pleased to see that the ADLC, in its decision, highlights the fact that the artificial intelligence service "Bard", launched by Google in July 2023, used content from publishers and press agencies for the purposes of training its founding model, without notifying the latter, and worse, by setting up a system that did not allow publishers and press agencies to negotiate remuneration for related rights. The ethical use of AI is a priority issue for OIP, as it is essential to ensure that AI does not become a lever to reinforce the monopoly held by American players, who, as we unfortunately see all too often, respect neither our laws nor our European values!"

adds Quentin Adam

President of OIP

Contacts:

Léonidas Kalogeropoulos, Délégué Général : +33607315126 – l.k@openinternetproject.eu

Anaïs Strauss, Chargée de mission :+33757503010 – anais.strauss@openinternetproject.eu

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