Press publishers received the support of the Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday 8 October in the dispute between them and Google over the payment of neighbouring rights. In its judgment, which was scrutinised throughout Europe, the Court ruled that the French competition authority was indeed entitled to oblige Google to enter into good faith negotiations on these neighbouring rights with newspaper publishers (see EUROPE 12551/26).
The Court dismissed the action brought by Google and ordered it to pay the sum of €20,000 to each of the representatives of the press publishers involved, namely the Alliance de la presse d’information générale (APIG), Syndicat des éditeurs de la presse magazine (SEPM) and Agence France Presse.
Google has indicated that it acknowledges the Court of Appeal’s decision. “We appealed to get legal clarity on some parts of the order, and we will now review the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal”, the US giant said in a statement. “Our priority remains to reach an agreement with the French publishers and press agencies”, on the issue of content remuneration, it added. See the judgment (in French): https://bit.ly/33H3T5a (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)