Google and France Agree to Pay for News

Read Time:1 Minute, 7 Second

Google has put an end to a dispute over compensation for the use of news stories with commitments to the French competition authority. Google was fined €500 million last year for failing to strike a fair deal with French news media over the posting of their articles.

According to Benoît Cœuré, head of regulator Autorité de la concurrence, Google’s promises “for the first time in Europe” have set a framework for news media to negotiate fairly. The agreements also guarantee that media parties receive the necessary information about compensation to which they are entitled, says Benoît Cœuré.

In 2019, new European legislation allows news media publishers to request money from major online platforms that post their news articles or parts thereof. Publishers of, for example, newspapers have previously complained that they are missing out on advertising revenue because platforms like Google post their news.

Google says it has recently concluded agreements with more than 150 French titles about compensation for their messages. These include the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, the newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro and the current affairs site huffingtonpost.fr.

Google also reports that an independent party is checking whether the tech group and media companies are making sufficient progress in negotiating placements of their messages. If the talks stall, publishers can go to arbitration at Google’s expense.