Google, Facebookke so saying they will have to pay to publishers and journalists a fair compensation to enjoy their content. it establishes theAgCom, the Communications Authority, which approved the related regulation. The go-ahead, which came with Commissioner Giomi's only vote against, will ensure that newspapers will be able to ask giants such as Google and Facebook for compensation for the use of their information content.
"The regulation - explains AgCom - has as its main objective that of encouraging agreements between publishers and information society service providers, including media monitoring and press review companies, drawing inspiration from the commercial practices and business models adopted by the market".
What does the regulation on fair compensation provide?
The regulation approved by Agcom is added to the legislative decree n.177 of 2021 which in turn implements article 15 of the European copyright directive, and establishes the criteria for determining fair compensation.
In particular, the regulation identifies as a basis for calculation "advertising revenue of the service provider arising from the online use of the publisher's press publications, net of the publisher's revenue attributable to the redirect traffic generated on its website by the press publications used by the service provider online”. On this basis, the publisher can be attributed a share of up to 70% determined on the basis of predetermined criteria. "The presence of a maximum rate - underlines Agcom - has the objective of making the scheme for determining fair compensation flexible, adapting it to the different needs of the parties and to the different characteristics of both lenders and publishers".
But there are also other criteria to be taken into consideration when determining what is the right amount to pay out to publishers and newspapers:
- The number of online consultations of the articles
the relevance of the publisher on the market (online audience); - the number of journalists employed;
The proven costs incurred by the publisher for technological and infrastructural investments intended for the creation of the online articles; - the proven costs incurred by the lender for technological and infrastructural investments dedicated exclusively to the reproduction and communication of online journalistic publications;
- Publisher's and provider's adherence to and compliance with self-regulatory codes and international standards on information quality and fact-checking;
- the years of activity of the publisher in relation to the historicity of the masthead.
Legislative decree no. 177 and the AgCom regulation finally establish that if within 30 days of the request to start negotiations the parties cannot agree on the amount of the compensation, each of them can rcontact the Authority for the determination of fair compensation. Within 60 days of the request, the Authority indicates, on the basis of the criteria established in the regulation, which of the economic proposals formulated complies with the established criteria or, if it does not consider any of the proposals compliant, it officially indicates the amount of the fair compensation .
The reaction of Google and Facebook
“We work with governments and news publishers across the European Union as countries transpose the Directive into their national legislation,” he says. Google which, he explains in detail: “We have started conversations with publishers to enter into agreements on the use of protected content and since 2021 we have already signed licensing agreements with over 1.000 publications in eleven European countries, including Germany, France and Spain. We have been actively working with AgCom, rights holders and other key industry stakeholders to clarify how Google Search works and propose a fair compensation system. We also presented to AgCom the benefits and results of the Extended News Preview program, and how this solution has proved to be a successful response to the European Copyright Directive in several countries in Europe”.
Google concludes by saying that: “Our approach to the EU Copyright Directive is consistent with our long-standing commitment to the news industry as one of the largest financial backers of journalism worldwide. We therefore hope to be able to carry on the Extended News Preview program also in Italy, trusting in a fair and balanced regulation, as done in many other European countries”.
More wait-and-see Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram: "We will examine the regulation - says a spokesman - and we confirm our support for the objectives of the European directive on copyright".
