Google sulks France and castigates Europe, which “hurts business and users”
THE Ai Overviewsthe new Google generative research brick, land in Europe … but not in France. Officially, the American giant evokes an uncertain regulatory framework, implying that the requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) would impose constraints incompatible with its innovation model. In filigree, a new confrontation between Google and the European Union is played out – and it is far from unprecedented.
The Google narrative: intermediaries cost users
Google targets in its argument Vertical meta-motor – in the journey, real estate, the hotel industry -, presented as expensive intermediaries which would harm the effectiveness of research and add prices for consumers. Some publishers validate this reading: the new rules imposed by the DMA have reduced their traffic, forcing Google to give more visibility to competing services.
But this posture forgets an essential reality: Google himself became the intermediary par excellencecapturing attention, concentrating the information, and reducing unscruized clicks … or even clicks.
A heavy precedent: the Google Shopping affair
This is not the first time that Europe has criticized Google to blur the border between search engine and intermediation platform. THE September 10, 2024there Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed the fine of 2.4 billion euros inflicted on Google in 2017 to have favored its own price comparator, Google Shoppingto the detriment of competing actors.
The case dates back to 2012, when Olivier Sichelthen CEO of the LeGuid comparator, had alerted to the brutal downgrading of its service, demoted to the 25th page of the results. This loss of visibility had led to a formal complaint, then to a long investigation by the Commission, relaunched in 2014 under the leadership of Margrethe Vestager. This case laid the foundations for current regulation: Google cannot self-prefeat in its search results.
And now these are the same questions that reappear with the arrival of the generative AI.
France: Laboratory of regulation or symbolic target?
By refusing to launch the AI ​​Overviews in France, Google sends a clear message: Regulation kills innovation. For its part France, by applying the DMA to the letter, recalls thatNo actor-as dominant as it is-can ignore collective rules.
The irony is that Google, which today castigates meta-motor, had built all its defense in 2017 by minimizing its own role of intermediary. A strategy that the CJEU has just sweeps away, paving the way for massive repair requests from injured comparators.
