The double posture of press editors against Google

Audio 02:30

GettyImages / SOPA Images / Contributor

By: Amaury de Rochegonde Follow

6 min

A victory for press editors: the Paris Court of Appeal validated Thursday, October 8 a decision of the French Competition Authority which requires Google to negotiate a remuneration agreement with publishers and press agencies.

Publicity

It is a decision that was eagerly awaited in Europe.

A European directive on neighboring rights, making it possible to remunerate press content, was passed two years ago and was transposed in France in mid 2019. Since then, Google has been fighting against all publishers.

In July, the Competition Authority forced the giant to negotiate with them in good faith, but Google did not want to hear about it.

He had frozen any discussion and had turned to the Paris Court of Appeal to avoid paying these famous neighboring rights which concern both small texts presenting articles, as well as photos or videos.

And now, this Thursday, October 8, the Court ruled in favor of the Competition Authority, which ordered Google to negotiate with the press, but also with AFP, whose photos are regularly looted by the search engine.

Isabelle de Silva, the president of the Authority, even spoke of a “

 ”

stop 

.

Not only emergency measures to charge a neighboring right are recognized, but also the capacity of a regulatory body to enforce the law with a platform.

This will therefore be used for all platforms and on all subjects: online hatred, the distribution of infox, respect for private life.

Not to mention the possible abuse of a dominant position on which the Authority will have to rule on the substance.

►

But, it is undoubtedly not a coincidence of the calendar, the day before, Wednesday, Google and the Alliance of the press of general information published a joint statement to explain that they were negotiating a framework agreement.

So, of course, in this alliance which brings together 300 publications and in particular dailies, we talk with Google about neighboring rights.

But there is also a lot of talk about the "news showcase", this Google program which aims to remunerate quality content by selecting it.

The giant even said it was ready to spend a billion dollars for it in the world.

And obviously, publishers seek to be among the partners likely to receive this windfall.

Only, according to

, we are not talking of astronomical sums that could be invested in France in this framework agreement but of 25 to 30 million euros, a little more than the 20 million of the Google fund in 2013. And if there is a mutual agreement with the publishers, what will be the place of journalists to whom the law grants this famous neighboring right?

The good news is that the internet giants no longer seem untouchable.

One more effort and they will pay their taxes in France.

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