The application of "
neighboring rights
", which remunerates press publishers for the resumption of their content on the Internet, is surrounded by "
opacity
" according to a parliamentary report, which recommends more transparency and the use of collective negotiations .
"
Two years after the adoption of the directive and the promulgation of the law, the number of compensation agreements under the neighboring right is completely marginal and the intention of the legislator has not been respected
", criticizes the document of the National Assembly.
Read also Neighboring rights: the magazine press once again seizes the Competition Authority against Google
According to the report of this fact-finding mission, chaired by Virginie Duby-Muller (LR) with Laurent Garcia (related to MoDem) as rapporteur, “
publishers and press agencies do not have the means for healthy cooperation with the media. digital platforms given the opacity of their operation
”.
And "
rare are those to have received remuneration under neighboring rights.
The content of past agreements is opaque
, ”they point out.
More transparency around data
To make these agreements “
completely transparent, finally fair and voluntarily collective
”, the parliamentarians formulate 10 proposals, the first of which is to oblige digital platforms to provide their data in order to define a calculation of remuneration for publishers. They also call for the agreements already made to be made public, given the possible repercussions on the amount of public aid to the press and to assess the redistribution of these remunerations to journalists.
Several French media have already announced the signing of an agreement on neighboring rights, such as AFP with Google for 5 years, on November 17, or the Alliance for the General Information Press (Apig) with Facebook on October 21. . In mid-December, the Competition Authority published the commitments offered by Google to resolve the conflict over these rights. The media have until January 31 to respond.
The parliamentary report urges all publishers and press agencies to join the Neighboring Law Society, created in October, with a view
to "obtaining a better balance of power
".
With the advent of digital platforms, the newspaper industry has faced a constant decline in its revenues.
Between 2000 and 2020, the advertising revenues of the paper press notably increased from 5 to 2 billion euros, observe the parliamentarians.
Google and Facebook / Meta capture almost all advertising revenue, or 70% of the digital advertising market.
9 European states have transposed the directive
Laurent Garcia called on the Member States of the European Union which had not yet transposed the European directive on neighboring rights into their national legislation to do so.
"
In 2022, Europe must take up this subject
," he said.
According to the parliamentary report, out of the 27 EU states, only nine have transposed the directive - including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and six are at the start of their transposition.
Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron, had underlined how much the subject was close to his heart, while France has just taken the rotating presidency of the EU for six months.
"
We will complete, if necessary, our French and European texts to follow through on the will which was ours and remains ours, the fair remuneration of copyright and neighboring rights
", he said.