French press body demands action against Google AI summaries

France's Alliance of General Information Press (APIG) has taken Google to task, filing a complaint with the country's competition authority over the tech giant's new AI-generated search result summaries. The APIG, representing 300 French newspapers and magazines, argues that these AI summaries are siphoning readers away from original news sources and is demanding fair compensation for publishers whose content fuels the AI.

APIG's president, Marc Feuillee, called for the AI summaries to be subjected to competition law scrutiny. The association is seeking measures similar to those previously imposed on Google in a case involving French press publishers, which resulted in Meta Platforms being ordered to negotiate payment for content use. A French regulation introduced four years ago already mandates that Google pay for using French press articles, a dispute that previously led to a $576.8 million fine for the search engine.

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The unilateral deployment of new uses of press content, without prior authorisation or dedicated remuneration, disregards ⁠these commitments.

Google launched its AI Overviews in 2024, with the feature rolling out in France recently. The APIG asserts that this has led to a significant drop in internet traffic to news articles, as users are less inclined to click through to the original sources. "The unilateral deployment of new uses of press content, without prior authorisation or dedicated remuneration, disregards these commitments," the alliance stated. The French communications regulator, Arcom, has estimated a traffic decrease of 33% to 38% on news sites due to these AI summaries.

Feuillee emphasized the inherent value of media content used to train AI, stating, "The fact that AI is built upon media content means one single thing: this information has considerable value." Google, however, maintains that its AI summaries enhance user experience by enabling more complex queries and content discovery, while also assisting publishers. This legal battle in France mirrors growing global concerns among publishers who are increasingly seeking control and compensation for their content used by tech companies. Publishers in the UK and Canada have also voiced similar complaints about the impact of Google's AI Overviews on their operations and revenue.

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The fact that AI is built upon media content means one single thing: this information has ⁠considerable value.