Google has reached a provisional agreement with Corint Mediaa European corporation that represents the rights of some 500 German and international media companies, which according to Reuters establishes that the technology company will have to pay German media 3.2 million euros annually for publishing their content in your news search engine.
This compensation is only part of the agreement reached between both parties, and is still provisional because its final approval is pending the decision made by the German Patent and Trademark Office, the DPMA. This body will be in charge of setting the final amount, and although it will review the amount agreed upon by Google and Corint Media, it may even decide that the sum that Google will have to pay each year is greater.
As we have mentioned, Corint Media represents the interests of several hundred international media outlets, including Al Jazeera, France 24 and CNBC Europe. Also several German media and publishers, such as Axel Springer, Sat 1, ProSieben or RTL. For several years now, it has been in charge of negotiating with Google on behalf of media for its use of press content without payment of any compensation to its creators.
In principle, Corint Media asked Google for 420 million for the news content used by Google in 2022, so the amount agreed upon by the two parties is noticeably lower. For this reason, those responsible hope that after reviewing the agreement, the DPMA will decide that those in Mountain View have to pay much more to the German media. Meanwhile, Google has already accepted a one-time payment of 5. (Valium) 8 million for the period between June 2021 and March 2023.
Still pending what the DPMA decides, Google has indicated that «“The payments to Corint Media are in line with what we have already agreed with 470 regional and national publications in Germany.” Among others, they already have agreements with Die Zeit or Der Spiegel.
Christine Jury-Fischer, CEO of Corint Mediahas stressed that «Where Google’s near-monopoly dictates prices, the only way forward to obtain appropriate compensation for the use of content is through the ordinary courts.«.
Furthermore, he added that the agreement shows that «Even a portion of the press market can succeed in defending itself from Google’s dominant business practices if there is a high level of unity. If successful, these efforts should, and will, benefit other publishers as well«.
