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The French competition authority decided on Thursday that Google should pay French publishers and news agencies for the partial reuse of their articles.
This is a decision by the Autorité de la Concurrence after a complaint from several publishing houses and the French news agency AFP in November last year.
“Google’s practices have caused severe and immediate damage to the press sector, while the economic situation of publishers and news agencies is fragile.
The law seeks to improve compensation conditions while deriving revenues from content produced by journalists,” it said in a statement.
The ruling now obliges Google to negotiate fees with publishers and news agencies for reusing documents. This must be done within three months.
The relationship between the French journalism sector and Google has been under tension for a while. Many publications have seen advertising revenue fall for years, while a player like Google just earns more from ads.
It is therefore very sensitive that Google shows pieces of articles (news snippets) from the same publishers on its site.
