After Googlefought tooth - and - nailto weasel out of paying news publishers more ad tax income , journalist in France take triumph on Tuesday . The Silicon Valley titan agreed to a raw slate of licensing deals with newspaper publisher across the rural area and even restfully dropped its attempt to invoke a fine by the country ’s competition authorization of more than $ 500 million .
The French press ’ triumph is nearly a decade in the making . To understand how it came about , you require to read the extremely rocky relationship between Google and the modern sidereal day news setup .
In a nutshell : Google possess the world ’s predominant hunt engine and one of the most democratic news show aggregator out there , Google News , which means any news way out — fromsmall local papersto massive medium chains — are squeeze to play ball with the company in ordination to be have in either . And playing clod with the party means surrendering a not insignificantbit of advertizement revenueto Google with every story print .
Photo: Alastair Pike (Getty Images)
Considering how Google continue to swallowhundreds of one million million of ad dollarsannually while newsrooms around the human beings arefighting to survive , it stands to reason some of them would seek to revolt . Here in the U.S. , for example , we ’re seeing anongoing suitbetween 200 news publishers and Google , along with fellow ad monster Facebook , over allegation that the company below the belt cant over the ad market and gutted their publications in the process .
In Europe , things work a bit differently . At the commencement of 2019 , EU lawmakersagreedto back a new right of first publication flier that would — among other thing — pull news aggregator and search engines like Google to pay publishers for showing off snip from their sites . At the clip , the company noted that the bank bill “ will still lead to sound doubtfulness and will injure Europe ’s originative and digital economies . ” And to be fair , that ’s exactly what we ’d seen when other tax revenue - sharing bills had passed before .
When Spain passed a standardised law back in 2014 , for representative , the company abruptly shut down Google Newsacross the country , mean that Spanish intelligence publishers were blocked off from any dealings the aggregator could provide . And because profits depend almost entirely on traffic in the digital publication earthly concern , when those numbers plump , salary plummeted too;one study estimatedSpanish news program outlets lost the equivalent of roughly $ 11 million in the immediate aftermath of the law going through . Google News would eventually return to the countryseven twelvemonth laterafter Spain take a somewhat softer posture on right of first publication jurisprudence which allowed publishing house — not lawmakers — to decide how their revenue communion agreement would shake out .
When Gallic authorities adopt the EU ’s unexampled copyright directive back in 2019 , Google at first tried to be a similar playbook . The companytweakedthe way it showed French news snippets in lookup results and in its aggregator , successfully find a loophole that would get it evade paying local publishing company .
Less than a yr later though , the country ’s antitrust authoritystepped into allow the company eff that it could n’t get out thing that easily , and order Google tonegotiatewith publishers over paying for their message , on the grounds that the company was perforate down in a sector where it distinctly had the upper hand .
Google complied bycutting dealswith French publisher , who were nimble to betoken out that these deals were less than ideal for a act of reasons , which drewanother crackdownfrom Gallic regulators in the summer of last year . The the country ’s competition authorization imposed a fine ofhalf a billion euro — roughly $ 527 million — against the search giant , over allegation that the company was pulling deception like withholding critical info from publishers during negotiations , and excluding certain mercantile establishment from their negotiations entirely .
Google tried appealing the amercement the following drop , on the ground that the half - a - billion one dollar bill smacking was “ disproportionate to [ Google ’s ] effort to reach an agreement and comply with the new law of nature . ” Just to put things in perspective , the company pulled in$258 billionthe same yr it fired off this appeal . The fine was literally 0.2 % of Google ’s overall bottom line for 2021 . So it ’s deserving taking the “ disproportionate ” claim with a texture of salt .
“ These commitments illustrate our desire to move forrader and to remunerate publishers and press agencies for their neighboring rights , ” Google VP Missoffe compose . “ We are determined to conduce to the news ecosystem , and will retain to act upon on securing more agreements with eligible French publishers and news program representation to further patronise journalism in France . ”
Great ! Now do journalism in America next .
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