Corint Media wel­co­mes today’s decis­i­on by the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on against Goog­le as, in prin­ci­ple, an important step towards enfor­cing the Digi­tal Mar­kets Act. The Com­mis­si­on has found that Goog­le undu­ly favours its own ser­vices in its search results and has impo­sed a fine of 460 mil­li­on euros for this. In addi­ti­on, a fur­ther fine of 430 mil­li­on euros was impo­sed for inf­rin­ge­ments rela­ting to the Goog­le Play Store. Howe­ver, from Corint Media’s per­spec­ti­ve, the decis­i­on falls short of the expec­ta­ti­ons of the Euro­pean media and crea­ti­ve indus­tries. The key ques­ti­on of how to deal with Google’s AI ser­vices ‘AI Over­views’ and ‘AI Mode’ remains unans­we­red. It is pre­cis­e­ly the­se ser­vices that rely hea­vi­ly on third-par­ty con­tent and are incre­asing­ly repla­cing visits to the ori­gi­nal sources with AI-gene­ra­ted respon­ses within the Goog­le inter­face. The Com­mis­si­on has announ­ced that it will con­ti­nue the dia­lo­gue on this issue.

Corint Media was among the first com­plainants from the con­tent indus­try to draw the Euro­pean Commission’s atten­ti­on to the com­pe­ti­ti­on risks posed by AI Over­views as ear­ly as Sep­tem­ber 2024. Sin­ce then, the com­pa­ny has repea­ted­ly war­ned that the inte­gra­ti­on of AI-gene­ra­ted respon­ses into search results goes far bey­ond tra­di­tio­nal cases of self-pre­fe­ren­cing and jeo­par­di­ses the eco­no­mic basis of inde­pen­dent con­tent pro­vi­ders. On a posi­ti­ve note, the issue of the DMA com­pli­ance of AI over­views and AI mode remains the sub­ject of regu­la­to­ry dia­lo­gue with the Com­mis­si­on. This aspect is also being exami­ned as part of an abu­se pro­cee­dings under Artic­le 102 TFEU.

The fine impo­sed today is also likely to be finan­ci­al­ly mana­geable for Goog­le. The DMA allows the Com­mis­si­on to impo­se fines of up to ten per cent of Google’s glo­bal annu­al tur­no­ver of around 400 bil­li­on US dol­lars. Howe­ver, the fine of 460 mil­li­on euros now impo­sed amounts to only around 0.5 per cent of Google’s 2025 tur­no­ver in the EMEA regi­on. This means that Goog­le will gene­ra­te the equi­va­lent of this fine in tur­no­ver in the rele­vant mar­ket in around one and a half days. Given the sca­le of the Alpha­bet group, it is cru­cial that the sub­stan­ti­ve com­pe­ti­ti­on issues are effec­tively resol­ved and that fur­ther pro­cee­dings are con­cluded swift­ly.

Dr Chris­ti­ne Jury-Fischer, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Corint Media: “Today’s decis­i­on by the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on does not yet bring any reli­ef to the Euro­pean press. Google’s AI Over­views and AI Mode ser­vices are not being regu­la­ted. The fine impo­sed is minus­cu­le given the group’s eco­no­mic signi­fi­can­ce. It is urgent and vital that the Com­mis­si­on now takes action on AI Over­views and AI Mode as well. Goog­le is gra­du­al­ly trans­forming search into an AI-dri­ven ans­wer engi­ne that reli­es to a signi­fi­cant ext­ent on third-par­ty pro­tec­ted con­tent, whilst at the same time redu­cing the visi­bi­li­ty of that con­tent. If the open inter­net is to be pre­ser­ved as a space for exch­an­ge and infor­ma­ti­on, AI Over­views must now be regu­la­ted swift­ly and effec­tively. Tech­no­lo­gi­cal pro­gress must not be con­fu­sed with the dis­pla­ce­ment of inde­pen­dent con­tent pro­vi­ders.”

For Corint Media, it is not just fair com­pe­ti­ti­on that is at sta­ke here. If jour­na­li­stic con­tent is incre­asing­ly repla­ced by AI sum­ma­ries and access to the ori­gi­nal sources is lost, media diver­si­ty, fun­ding oppor­tu­ni­ties and, con­se­quent­ly, the demo­cra­tic public sphe­re come under pres­su­re. A decis­i­on on AI Over­views and AI Mode is the­r­e­fo­re of con­sidera­ble importance not only in terms of com­pe­ti­ti­on poli­cy but also in terms of media poli­cy.

Link to the Euro­pean Commission’s press release on the decis­i­on: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1670