Canada Watching Google ‘closely’ After French Ruling

Canada’s Competition Bureau is closely following a French regulator’s ruling that Google must work out new arrangements to pay publishers and news agencies whose content is featured on its site. But experts in copyright law and digital media don’t expect Canada to follow suit, reported The Star. 

The Autorité de la concurrence ruled last week that Google must negotiate a repayment agreement with news companies and publishers for using their content. 

The ruling stems from a November 2019 complaint from two unions representing press publishers and a French-headquartered news agency, that claimed Google displayed their content unfairly in snippets on its service, costing them important revenue. 

“The Competition Bureau is aware of this decision … (but) regarding the conduct in question, it would be inappropriate for the bureau to speculate as to whether it may represent a contravention of (Canadian law),” Marcus Callaghan, a spokesperson for the Canadian regulator, said in a statement Monday, April 13. 

“The bureau must conduct a thorough and complete examination of the facts before deciding whether to challenge any type of alleged conduct.” 

According to the complainants, search engines represent between 26% and 90% of their redirected traffic. Google’s display policy meant publishers had to allow Google to display article extracts, photos, and more without compensation — otherwise they wouldn’t be displayed at all.

Full Content: The Star

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