Google must pay publishers for news snippets in France

The French authorities are forcing Google to negotiate with publishers and news organizations within three months about a fee for the use of articles for the news snippets of Google News and the search engine.

The negotiations should retroactively cover fees for the reuse of the content, from the entry into force of the new French copyright law, on October 24, 2019. This is reported by the French competition authority Autorité de la concurrence. With that law, France implemented the European Copyright Directive. Google decided to stop displaying the snippets in the run-up to the new law.

The company then offered publishers to republish the short summaries, provided it licensed it and didn’t have to pay for it. The majority of publishers agreed and, according to the Autorité de la concurrence, there was no room for negotiation and Google even gained wider opportunities to reuse content than before, leaving publishers worse off.

The authority is investigating Google’s conduct and reports that there is likely to be an abuse of its dominant position. Between 26 and 90 percent of the traffic from the sites of the French publishers and news organizations comes from Google and they couldn’t afford to miss this traffic.

Google must now meet with publishers and news organizations within three months to discuss fees and in the meantime, the company must not stop with the snippets again to increase the pressure. Google must also provide the authority with monthly reports on progress. Google says in a statement that it meets the requirements and has been working with publishers since last year to “increase support and invest in news”.