Google ordered to pay for news in France sparking global implications
Google will be forced within three months to negotiate with media companies to start paying for content under an injunction in France, the first country in the world to ratify laws over content use.
The new rule on so-called “neighbouring rights” is designed to ensure news publishers are compensated when their work is shown on websites, search engines and social media platforms.
“Google’s practices caused a serious and immediate harm to the press sector, while the economic situation of publishers and news agencies is otherwise fragile,” France’s ‘Autorite de la Concurrence’ said in a statement.
While these will only apply to Google in France, the decision has global ramifications and is being viewed closely by media giants in Australia which have been arguing with the tech giant and the Federal Government along the same lines, for a level playing field of the media landscape.
Late last year the Morrison government granted companies like Google and Facebook the opportunity to work with traditional media companies to work up a voluntary code, threatening to seek a mandate by November this year if they could not come up with one.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Rod Simms said today that code was now more urgent than ever, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The ACCC was aware of what had happened in France but he said Australia was one step ahead in terms of already reaching a negotiating position.
An ACCC report on the progress of those negotiations would be out in May and if progress had not been made the ACCC would mandate a code.
“We will see where we are at in May,” a spokeswoman said today.
A spokesman for the Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the ACCC was already leading “this important work” similar to what the French are doing.
“The French competition authority’s approach addresses the same issues as those addressed by the Australian competition regulator, the ACCC, in its digital platforms inquiry,” he told News Corp Australia.
“Following that inquiry the Government has directed the ACCC to oversee the development of codes regulating the commercial relationships between the digital platforms and Australian media businesses.”
Tech giants are under pressure to pay for running news from media companies.
