PARIS — France’s years-long copyright dispute is heating up again.
After a détente of sorts before the holiday break, tensions have risen again between U.S. tech giants and the press industry over payment for news. And following months of technical discussions in the corridors of the country’s competition authority, the spat has taken a political turn.
French magazines have launched a fresh offensive against Google to get them to sign licensing deals — and the French president has their back.
One day after they lodged a new complaint before the competition watchdog, Macron pledged to go after online platforms again if they refuse to pay for news. Less than 24 hours later, lawmakers also released a report accusing tech companies of not abiding by the rules.
This trend could jeopardize Google’s willingness to “open a new chapter in the field of neighboring rights,” as the U.S. tech giant itself put it before the holiday break, and could also spell trouble for Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft’s LinkedIn — the other platforms on the press publishers’ and the politicians’ radar. (Axel Springer, POLITICO Europe’s owner, is an active participant in the debate.)
France is the first country to have implemented the EU’s copyright reform, which grants press publishers a right to ask for payment when their content is displayed on online platforms — making it both a laboratory and a trend-setter for the rest of the bloc.
The competition authority got involved after complaints from press publishers that Google did not negotiate in “good faith,” which led over the summer to a €500 million fine. The watchdog will decide in the coming months whether to pursue the case on the grounds of alleged abuse of Google’s dominant position.
Google France Director General Sébastien Missoffe said in a statement that the company’s “objective remains the same: cover press agencies and publishers’ neighboring rights under the French law. Negotiations are ongoing and most of them are moving forward positively.”