Google’s French Publishing Deal Waits on Antitrust Decision

Google has put on hold a preliminary deal with some French publishers to pay for news content as it awaits an antitrust decision that could set the tone for copyright talks on online news in Europe, two sources close to the matter said.

Under the three-year framework agreement signed by Google and the Alliance de la presse d’information generale (APIG), a lobby group representing most major French publishers, the US company agreed in January to pay a total of US$76 million to 121 publications, according to documents seen by Reuters.

It is one of the highest-profile deals under Google’s “News Showcase” program to provide compensation for news snippets used in search results, and the first of its kind in Europe.

However, no individual licensing agreement has been signed by Google with an APIG member since then and talks are de facto frozen pending the antitrust decision, the sources said.

Only a few publications, such as daily newspapers Le Monde, Le Figaro, and Liberation, had reached individual deals prior to the framework agreement.

“We’re still working with publishers, the APIG and the French competition authority on our agreements in order to finalise and sign more deals,” Google, a unit of Alphabet, said in a statement.

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