Google reaches an agreement to remunerate almost 300 French newspapers

Google has reached an agreement with an association that brings together nearly 300 French newspapers to remunerate them for the use of their news content as required by law, and whose non-compliance last year had earned it a fine of 500 million euros.

The American internet giant and the Alliance of the General Information Press (APIG) presented the agreement this Thursday in a statement, in which they highlighted that it supposes “a historical stage in the application” of the so-called related rights.

They also pointed out that it means the conclusion of the negotiations that had been launched last September within the framework that the Competition Authority had set in July, when it imposed a fine of 500 million euros for not negotiating in good faith with publishers. of press.

The Competition Authority had based that sanction – which was accompanied by the threat of having to pay 900,000 euros for each day it was delayed in formalizing a remuneration offer for related rights – on French legislation that since 2019 transposes a European directive.

The commitment between Google and APIG establishes the “beginning” from which the Internet search engine will negotiate individual license agreements and the remuneration conditions of the newspapers of that association, “based on transparent and non-discriminatory criteria”.

In addition, the two parties have corrected a framework agreement that they had signed in February 2021 on the Google News Showcase service to comply with what the Competition Authority had dictated.

For the president of APIG, Pierre Louette, who is the CEO of the Les Echos-Le Parisien press group, these pacts constitute “essential steps for the recognition and effective application of the related rights of press publishers and their remuneration for the use of their online publications”.

Louette added that it is concrete “creating a new perennial revenue category for publishers”.

The chief executive officer of Google in France, Sébastien Missoffe, announced that “In the next weeks” they will begin to pay the 300 headers involved and he was convinced that they will open “new perspectives to contribute” to its development.