ACCC welcomes France Google move

Australia‘s competition tsar Rod Sims has welcomed France’s move to order Google to negotiate with media companies.

ACCC Chair Rod Sims. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Australia‘s competition tsar Rod Sims has welcomed France’s move to order Google to negotiate with media companies, and says he’s working closely with regulators across the globe, including in France, as Australia moves towards a mandatory media bargaining code.

On Thursday night a Paris appeals court upheld an order for Google to negotiate with media groups in a long-running dispute about revenues from online news.

The French skirmish closely echoes the fiery battle playing out between media companies and Facebook and Google in Australia, over to what extent tech giants should compensate media companies for news.

Mandatory bargaining legislation is expected to be introduced to the Australian parliament before the end of the year, and will have significant consequences for the media and tech industries worldwide.

“We welcome this important decision,” Rod Sims told The Australian. “We continue to engage with competition regulators around the world, including the French Competition Authority, on these issues.”

Google has so far refused to comply with new EU rules giving more copyright protection to media firms for news displayed on search engines and social media.

In April, the French competition authority ordered Google to negotiate with the press in good faith – a ruling it appealed, accusing the authority of overstepping its jurisdiction.

The appeals court sided with the competition authority.

Google argues it should not have to pay to display items produced by news companies since they benefit by receiving millions of visits to their websites.

But in a sign that the Californian company is anxious to do a deal, it announced on Thursday (AEDT) that it made the French press an offer on copyright.

“We want to support journalism and ensure continued access to quality content for as many people as possible,” Google France director Sebastien Missoffe said in a joint statement with French newspapers.

Australia‘s code, which is currently in draft form, would force tech giants and media companies to put a price on news and negotiate in a process dubbed ‘binding final-offer arbitration’. Google has run an aggressive campaign calling for a “fair code”, while Facebook has threatened to block Australians from sharing news altogether if the code is ratified.

Australia was left out last week when Google said would invest $US1 billion in partnerships with news publishers worldwide to develop a “Showcase” app to highlight their reporting packages.

Google’s Australian boss has said she hoped that program could soon come to Australia, despite the tech giant’s ongoing threats to leave the Australian market over the “unworkable” media bargaining code.

Australia would have been one of the first markets to feature the program were it not for the pending legislation, Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Mel Silva said.

“Australia was one of the first countries in the world where we signed agreements with publishers to participate in News Showcase and we were in discussions with many more,” she said.

“As we’ve previously said, as we work to understand the impacts of the news media bargaining code on partnerships and products, we have put this project on pause for now.

“Although our concerns about the code are serious, we hope they can be resolved so we can bring News Showcase to Australia soon, as we believe the program will help publishers grow their audience and contribute towards the overall sustainability of our Australian news partners.”

Additional reporting: AFP