Publishers and news agencies are invited to share their comments on the Competition Authority until 31 January 2022 on the US Giant’s proposals, applicable for a period of five years.
Le Monde with AFP and Reuters
After sanctions, negotiations. In July, the Competition Authority had not respected the injunction to negotiate in good faith with publishers on the application of neighboring rights, condemning the American giant to a fine of 500 million. Euros, “the strongest fine” never inflicted by the French “Constable”. In September, Google appealed.
The competition authority announced, Wednesday, December 15, that it will submit to a public consultation with the actors concerned the Commitments offered by Google To resolve competition concerns identified in the neighboring rights file.
The publishers have until January 31, 2022 to give their opinion on these commitments. Depending on the results of the consultation, the competition authority may decide, or not, to close the procedure on the bottom committed by the press publishers against the American giant.
The concept of neighboring copyright rights allows newspapers, magazines or news agencies to be paid when their content is reused on the Internet. With regard to Google, it applies to press extracts that appear in the search engine results pages.
This remuneration was instituted for online platforms by Article 15 of the European Copyright Directive, adopted in March 2019 by the European Parliament after more than two years of hard debates.
Google had initially refused the principle of a remuneration of publishers and news agencies, bringing them to seize the competition authority. According to the statement of it, Google is committed to “negotiating in good faith” with publishers and agencies who wish, and “to make a compensation proposal” within three months.
Commitments Valid for five years
In the absence of an agreement, “the trading parties will have the opportunity to submit an arbitral tribunal to determine the amount of remuneration”, whose fees will be paid by Google. “An authorized independent agent will ensure the implementation of the commitments made and may apply, where applicable, the services of a technical, financial or specialized intellectual property expert”.
The American giant also undertakes to communicate to press publishers and press agencies the technical information “allowing a transparent assessment of the compensation proposed by Google”. “Google undertakes to take the necessary measures for the negotiations neither the indexation nor the rankings nor the presentation of protected content,” still specifies the authority. The commitments are valid for a period of five years.