French court orders Google to halt new news search tool – Science & Tech

The Paris Commercial Court has ruled on an emergency injunction requested by the SEPM union, which represents magazine staff in France.

The union claimed the search giant would begin testing a plan on Thursday under which it would remove from search results a number of articles from media outlets with which it was in conflict over rights to use online news.

However, Google said the project was a “temporary experiment” to evaluate the influence of content from European publishers on users’ search experience.

Google and other online platforms have been accused in recent years of making billions from news without sharing the revenue with those who collect it.

To address this, the European Union has created a form of copyright called ‘related rights’, which allows print media to claim compensation for the use of their content.

France was a test case for the rules and, after initial resistance, Google and Facebook both agreed to pay some French media for articles shown in internet searches.

Google and SEPM have been negotiating about neighboring rights for several years.

The court in Paris on Wednesday ordered US-based Google LLC, Google Ireland and Google France “not to continue testing” the reported plan or face a fine of “€300,000 each”, according to the court order from AFP.

SEPM, which includes 80 media groups, welcomed the order, which it said would “protect the interests of the French press.”

Google said it was “surprised” by SEPM’s stance and said it was trying to collect data because “independent administrative authorities and press publishers have asked us for more information about the impact of displaying news content in our search engine.”

In March, Google was fined 250 million euros by the French competition authority for failing to comply with some of the commitments it had made in the field of neighboring rights.

The Alphabet Group subsidiary is not alone in its disputes with the French media over the use of content without payment.

Accused of bad faith negotiations, social media network X (formerly Twitter) was sued this month by leading French media groups such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisien.

Agence France-Presse is suing X on the same issue, with a hearing on May 15, 2025.