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Brussels / Berlin (dpa) - After the escalated dispute between the Australian government and Facebook about paying for publishing content, European publishers and Microsoft have come out in favor of a model similar to that in Australia.
Publishers associations and the US software company announced on Monday in a joint statement that they were working on a solution in Europe that would ensure that publishers are paid for the use of their content by dominant Internet platforms.
It is also specifically about a mediation instrument.
The whole thing should be in line with the new guidelines on copyright, which must be implemented in national law across the EU by the summer.
In Australia, a dispute between the government and Facebook is currently rising.
The US company blocked news pages on its platform for Australian users on Thursday.
Since then, Facebook users in Australia can no longer share national or international journalistic content.
The company is thus opposed to a bill by the Australian government that will force companies like Google and Facebook to pay local media companies if they distribute their content.
The government wants to achieve that advertising revenue is distributed more fairly.
Facebook argues that Australian publishers per se benefit when their posts are shared on Facebook - and thus achieve greater reach.
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The publishers' associations and Microsoft, which operates the Internet search engine Bing, which competes with Google, among other things, further announced: The joint solution aims to ensure that so-called gatekeepers - i.e. platforms that make content available - make payments for the use of this content to press publishers.
And it contains "arbitration provisions that ensure that fair agreements can be negotiated".
The Australian model provides a kind of arbitrator who decides in the event of a dispute and sets a price.
Those involved complained: "Although press publishers in the EU have been granted ancillary copyrights, negotiations with such gatekeepers will not lead to fair results unless additional regulatory measures are taken" in order to contain platforms with a dominant position through framework conditions such as national laws.
In December, the EU presented a legislative package aimed at putting tech giants in their place in many areas.
The publishers' associations EMMA, which also includes the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ), EPC, NME and ENPA, which also includes the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) in Germany, as well as Microsoft called for an arbitration mechanism to be integrated into European or national law.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210222-99-546556 / 2
Communication from BDZV
Communication blog Microsoft
Communication from VDZ