02/09/2020 (Agence Europe) – French general-interest press publishers have referred to the Competition Authority a case of Google’s failure to comply with its obligation to negotiate with them on neighbouring rights, the French news agency (AFP) said on Wednesday 2 September. The Copyright Directive gives newspaper publishers a new neighbouring right and requires platforms to make “best efforts” to get the green light from right holders before sharing protected content. Faced with Google’s refusal to negotiate with French press publishers on 9 April, the Competition Authority ordered the search engine to enter into negotiations in good faith. While discussions did take place, in the view of the Alliance of the General News Media (APIG), they were unsuccessful. (SPj)