Neighbouring Rights: The French Competition Authority Accepts Google's Commitments

The French Competition Authority accepts Google's binding commitments to act in good faith when negotiating payment for the use of the protected contents of press agencies and publishers.

This decision closes the procedure opened more than two years ago with the complaint of publishers who denounced practices implemented by Google following the incorporation of copyright rules and related rights into national law in 2019.

In order to comply with the law, Google decided to no longer display excerpts of articles and photographs within its services, unless publishers allowed it to do so for free. In practice, most press publishers granted Google free licenses for the use and display of their protected content without any negotiation.