Two years after the French Press Publishers’ Right, which is based on the EU Copy­right Direc­ti­ve, came into force, publishers in France are still in nego­tia­ti­ons with lar­ge digi­tal plat­forms such as Goog­le and Face­book. Most recent­ly, the French anti­trust aut­ho­ri­ty fined Goog­le of 500 mil­li­on Euros for obs­truc­ting nego­tia­ti­ons with the press publishers. The French Par­lia­ment is now eva­lua­ting the effec­ti­ve­ness of Press Publishers‘ Rights, and it is hol­ding out the pro­s­pect of tigh­tening them.

Lau­rent Gar­cia, the respon­si­ble rap­por­teur for the com­mis­si­on of inquiry of the Assem­blée Natio­na­le:

« La France a été le pre­mier pays de l’UE à trans­po­ser la direc­ti­ve euro­pé­en­ne sur le droit d’au­teur en droit natio­nal en 2019. Depuis lors, divers grou­pes numé­ri­ques ont ten­té d’empêcher la nais­sance du droit voi­sin des édi­teurs. En con­sé­quence de quoi, l’au­to­ri­té anti­trust fran­çai­se a déjà inf­li­gé une amen­de à Goog­le. Il est main­ten­ant temps d’éva­luer si la loi doit être durcie ou modi­fied afin que les grou­pes numé­ri­ques inter­na­ti­on­aux respec­tent effec­ti­ve­ment leurs obli­ga­ti­ons léga­les en France. En rai­son de la dimen­si­on euro­pé­en­ne de la loi, nous som­mes bien sûr inté­res­sés par la posi­ti­on de l’Al­le­ma­gne en géné­ral et de Corint Media en tant qu’or­ga­nis­me de ges­ti­on coll­ec­ti­ve des droits de la pres­se. »

To this end, the Assem­blée Natio­na­le — the lower house of the French par­lia­ment — has asked seve­ral mar­ket play­ers to com­ment in a com­mis­si­on of inquiry. The par­ti­ci­pan­ts were asked about their eco­no­mic and legal posi­ti­ons. As the only non-French mar­ket par­ti­ci­pant, Corint Media was sent a detail­ed ques­ti­on­n­aire in which both should be pre­sen­ted: the deve­lo­p­ment of the acti­vi­ties of Corint Media and the deve­lo­p­ment of Press Publishers‘ Rights in Ger­ma­ny.

Corint Media is ful­ly coope­ra­ting with the Assem­blée Natio­na­le and has pro­mi­sed to ans­wer the ques­ti­ons on time.

Corint Media‘s mana­ging direc­tors Chris­toph Schwennicke and Mar­kus Run­de sta­te the fol­lo­wing: “We wel­co­me the tigh­tening of Press Publishers‘ Rights in France and are plea­sed to share our expe­ri­en­ces and assess­ments with the French par­lia­ment — after all, the size of the task and the importance for the press allows only one Euro­pean path. In addi­ti­on, the eva­lua­ti­on of the Press Publishers‘ Right must be a signal for Ger­ma­ny to sup­port the press publishers and their dis­pu­te with domi­nant digi­tal plat­forms as well as to make the Ger­man law more enforceable.”