Google Will Pay AFP for Its News in First Deal After French Fine

(Bloomberg) -- Google has agreed to pay news wire Agence France-Presse for the use of its content, its first deal following a fine from the French regulator over its approach to negotiating compensation for news organizations.

The Alphabet Inc. division and AFP struck the accord after months of negotiations, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. The amount wasn’t disclosed. The news agency reported that the deal would cover content in all European Union countries for five years.

Web platforms like Google and Facebook have long been reluctant to pay media for using content such as news article extracts in their user feeds. The EU’s so-called neighboring rights law passed in 2019 compelled them to strike payment agreements with the region’s publishers. 

Google and a group of French press titles excluding AFP struck an initial agreement in January. However, the French competition authority fined Google 500 million euros ($593 million) in July for having failed to negotiate “in good faith” with news outlets. Google appealed the fine.

“This agreement with Agence France-Presse demonstrates our willingness to find common ground with publishers and press agencies in France on the topic of neighboring rights,” Sébastien Missoffe, managing director of Google France, said in the statement.

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