In the eyes of Google, the German press is obviously not worth much.

At least there is no reason for the American digital group to adequately remunerate newspapers, magazines and online publications for their contribution to the value creation of the digital group under the ancillary copyright law based on European copyright law.

Google considers a license fee for the use of press content of less than ten million euros per year to be “appropriate”.

Michael Hanfeld

responsible editor for feuilleton online and "media".

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You get this sum if you follow the notification of the collecting society Corint Media.

According to its own statements, Corint Media represents around 300 media houses or “around a third of the German ancillary press rights”.

According to Corint Media, Google has now offered the sum of 3.2 million euros for their compensation.

Corint Media had requested 420 million euros for the year 2022. Applied to the entire market, Google is thus offering around ten million euros for the German press ancillary copyrights.

With an estimated turnover of 11.3 billion euros, this would correspond to a license rate of 0.1 percent, the collecting society reports.

Licensing Google's uses on this basis is "impossible".

“Google's counter-offer of EUR 3.2 million is a slap in the face for the press in Germany.

The cartel office is in demand

When it comes to enforcing the ancillary copyright law for the press, “the ongoing proceedings by the Federal Cartel Office against Alphabet and Google as market dominants are in focus”.

The sum offered is “the first number” that Google mentions with regard to the rights represented by Corint Media.

When asked about the required 420 million euros, the Google company spokesman Kay Oberbeck said that the conditions offered were “fair and based on uniform criteria”.

We regret "that Corint, despite all our efforts, has refused to negotiate for several months.

Instead, Corint insists on absurd claims that have already been rejected once by the copyright arbitration board.

Despite the escalation by Corint, we remain open to further negotiations.” Contracts have already been signed with more than twenty publishers (including FAZ-Verlag) and talks are being held with “a number of large and small publishers”.

Our offer to Corint,” explains Oberbeck,

Corint Media considers their claim to be profound.

This "should end the ongoing situation" in which Google has illegally intervened in the press ancillary copyright since the press ancillary copyright came into force in June 2021, in that the search engine group uses content from press publishers in its offers without remunerating this use.

At the same time, courts and authorities should decide on possible contentious issues of copyright and antitrust law in the further proceedings.”

According to Corint Media, the license fee of 420 million euros was “calculated on the basis of the estimated Google turnover in Germany for 2022 of 12.4 billion euros and a percentage applied to it in the lower range of usual remuneration rates”.

Google, meanwhile, wants "to decide alone on the amount and assessment of the payment" and rejects "the usual rule according to which the rights holders are to be paid a percentage of the sales certified in the annual financial statements as appropriate remuneration".

In doing so, Google ignores "decisive pecuniary advantages" that the group enjoys "by displaying press releases", for example in the targeted use of advertising, the so-called "targeted advertising".