The Syndicat des Éditeurs de la Presse Magazine (SEPM), representing a significant portion of French magazine publishers, has filed a formal complaint with the Autorité de la Concurrence, France’s competition watchdog. The core of the dispute centers on how Google utilizes journalistic content to train its generative AI systems, such as Gemini. The publishers argue that Google is effectively scraping their intellectual property to build products that compete with the news outlets themselves, without securing the necessary permissions or offering financial remuneration.

This move follows years of tension between European media organizations and major tech platforms regarding digital copyright and the 'neighboring rights' laws established in the European Union. While Google has previously reached agreements with some French publishers to pay for content displayed in its news feed, the publishers contend that these existing deals do not cover the use of their data for AI model training.

Google has maintained that its AI development is a form of 'fair use' and that it provides tools for publishers to opt out of having their content crawled for AI training. However, the SEPM argues that these opt-out mechanisms are insufficient and place an undue burden on publishers. The French competition authority has not yet indicated whether it will launch a full-scale investigation, but the filing marks a significant escalation in the ongoing global debate over how AI companies should compensate creators for the data used to power their technology.