Tech giants facing EU battle over paying for news content

News publishers across Europe have partnered with Microsoft to demand revenue share

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. File picture

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said digital platforms that make money from sharing news must make a contribution to the cost of producing that content.

His comments follow the lengthy battle in Australia where the government faced a showdown with Facebook and Google over new legislation compelling them to share revenues with news organisations.

Now news publishers across Europe have partnered with Microsoft to demand they get paid for the use of their content by large tech companies. 

In a joint statement, four groups representing publishers across the continent, including the Irish Examiner, said the solution should mandate payments for the use of their content and that arbitration provisions should be put in place 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 said.

Facebook this week lifted a ban it had placed on Australians from sharing news content after it struck a deal with the government. 

Google had threatened to withdraw its search functions from the country in reaction to the legislation but has instead struck licensing deals with news companies for the use of their content.

Fernando de Yarza, president of News Media Europe, said the experiences in France and Australia have shown there is a real need for a binding instrument to address inherent imbalances in bargaining power with gatekeepers, which he said "undermine the potential of Europe’s press sector".

Asked by the Irish Examiner if the Government or Tánaiste specifically had any discussions with large tech companies such as Facebook and Google about making them pay for news content, as has happened in Australia, a spokesperson said the Tánaiste agrees that digital platforms making money from the sharing of high-quality journalistic content produced by others should make a contribution to the cost of producing that content. 

"The new European Copyright Directive seeks to achieve a fair balance between the interests of all stakeholders and work is underway to transpose the Directive into Irish law in time for the June deadline."

Microsoft and the European publishers say the 2019 copyright rules which force platforms to sign licensing deals with musicians, authors and publishers are not sufficient and said a system of arbitration was needed to resolve disagreements between parties.