Political support ‘essential’ to make Big Tech pay news publishers: French news association head

French and Indian media markets were not concentrated unlike in countries like Australia, reducing the bargaining power of each publisher

Pierre Petillault, director of the Alliance de la presse d’information générale, an industry association representing France’s news publishers. Photo: Twitter/@PPetillault

Traditional news publishers with a significant digital presence, collectively voiced their demand that Big Tech platforms paid more for featuring their content, at the Digital News Publishers Association’s (DNPA) Future of Digital Media Conference in New Delhi on January 20.

Pierre Petillault, director of the Alliance de la presse d’information générale (APIG), an industry association representing over 200 of France’s largest news publishers, said in a conversation with The Hindu on the event’s sidelines that political support was essential to fulfil the demand. He said the statement by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s Secretary supporting the same was “good news”.

The French experience

When France passed a law to enforce the European Copyright Directive— which granted so-called ‘neighbouring rights’ to intellectual property owners, potentially allowing news publishers to negotiate agreements with Big Tech platforms for featuring their content, the world’s largest search engine quickly acted.

Google told publishers that if they wanted their content to be featured on their search engine, it should be allowed under the new law for free, said Mr. Petillault. He added that the publishers did not have any choice but to accept, as on an average, 60% of the traffic came from Google. But at the same time, the publishers approached France’s competition authority, which ruled that Google was not negotiating in good faith, he said.

“We approached the Autorité de la concurrence a second time in 2020, and that settled things gradually, thanks to a structurally significant decision where the authority slapped Google with a tremendous €500 million fine,” Mr. Petillault said.

What was also key, he added, was political support. “The majority of French politicians, no matter from which party, were convinced that Big Tech platforms needed to support the news media more,” the executive said.

Political support was essential in markets like France and India, as the media market was not concentrated unlike in countries like Australia, reducing the bargaining power of each publisher, Mr. Petillault pointed out.

“What you then have to ask is if the right tools exist in the law to deal with this subject, or if a new law has to be passed,” Mr. Petillault said.