Microsoft siding with European publishers
European press publishers and Microsoft in a joint statement call for Australian-style arbitration mechanism in Europe to ensure tech gatekeepers remunerate press publishers fairly for use of content.
Microsoft has earlier expressed support for the proposed Australian legislation while Facebook protested against the legislation by stopping Australian users from sharing news on Facebook.
Google has protested against the idea about an independent panel that should set prices in Australia if publishers and big tech companies can not agree. Google has threatened to stop its search function in Australia if the proposed law wound be approved but has since agreed with Australian media to pay for their contributions to a new service called Google News Showcase to show that the company can agree with publisher.
Australian government has said it will anyway have the proposed law approved.
ARBRITATION
Europe’s press publishers and Microsoft have “agreed to work together on a solution to ensure that Europe’s press publishers get paid for the use of their content by gatekeepers that have dominant market power in line with the objectives of the new neighbouring right in the EU Digital Single Market Copyright Directive, which comes into force this June and to take inspiration from the new Australian legislation that requires the tech gatekeepers covered by that law to share revenue with news organisations.”
”The solution should mandate payments for the use of press publishers’ content by these gatekeepers and should include arbitration provisions, to ensure that fair agreements are negotiated. Such provisions should consider the model established by the Australian law, which enables an arbitral panel to establish a fair price based on an assessment of the benefits derived by each side in having the news content included on these gatekeepers’ platforms, the costs of producing this content, and any undue burden an amount would place on the platforms themselves”, the statement says.
MARKET POWER
”Although press publishers have been granted a neighbouring right in the EU, negotiations with such gatekeepers will not produce fair outcomes unless additional regulatory measures are brought forward to address gatekeepers with dominant market power, through appropriate regulatory frameworks such as the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act or other national laws.”
”We welcome proposals made by several Members of the European Parliament to introduce a final arbitration mechanism into relevant regulation. This is needed to prevent undermining the scope of the Publishers’ Right and to create legal certainty. Otherwise, even though press publishers have a neighbouring right, they might not have the economic strength to negotiate fair and balanced agreements with these gatekeeper tech companies, who might otherwise threaten to walk away from negotiations or exit markets entirely. ”
MICROSOFT NEWS
Casper Klynge, Vice President, Microsoft, said “Access to fresh, broad and deep press coverage is critical to the success of our democracies. Our commitment to preserving and promoting journalism isn’t new. In October 2020, we launched a new initiative to invest in and support local media and, through Microsoft News, we have been sharing a large portion of revenue with press publishers. This initiative is a logical next step.”
SPANISH NEGOTIATIONS
“Google is in talks with Spanish editors about the possibility of taking part in the Google News Showcase programme,” a source familiar with the process said Reuters reports. Two other sources said some preliminary agreements had already been reached, pending details of the new legislation.
Google News, linking to third party content, closed in Spain 2014 in response to legislation which meant it had to pay a mandatory collective licensing fee to re-publish headlines or snippets of news.
Google News will only be back in Spain if publishers have the right to sign individual agreements under a new law, a Google Spain spokeswoman said, adding that a paid licence should not be mandatory.
FRENCH PUBLISHERS
French antitrust investigators have accused Google of failing to comply with the state competition authority’s orders on how to conduct negotiations with news publishers over copyright, two sources who read the investigators’ report said, Reuters reports.
Investigators say Google’s failure to comply was of an exceptionally serious nature, the sources said.
French news publishers have said Google failed to hold talks with them in good faith to find an agreement. The same publishers were not part of the USD 76 million three-year deal Google has signed with some French publisher for contributing content to Google News Showcase.
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