Publishers vs big tech, what Agcom has established on fair compensation
Following the transposition of the Copyright Directive in November 2021, the regulation of the Communications Guarantee Authority (Agcom) arrives to define the criteria for the fair remuneration of online news publishers. All details
From today, publishers will be able to deal with web giants (such as Google or Facebook) and claim a fair compensation for journalistic content published online.
In yesterday's meeting, Agcom approved, with Commissioner Elisa Giomi's vote against ( M5s share ), the regulation on the determination of fair compensation for the online use of journalistic publications. The regulation, specifies the note , has as its main objective "to encourage agreements between publishers and information society service providers, including media monitoring and press review companies inspired by commercial practices and business models adopted by the market ”.
According to the text, advertising revenues will form the basis for calculating the amount of the share due to the publisher. Specifically, the regulation is based on the principle of revenue sharing which provides for publishers an estimated figure of up to 70% for each content produced and relaunched by the platforms.
"From now on, therefore, for the online use of journalistic publications, the platforms will have to stipulate specific contracts to determine how much of their advertising revenues deriving from this use must be paid to the publishers", summarizes Il Sole 24 Ore .
“The advertisements – visible on the Internet and included in these contents – will also guarantee revenues to the publishers and journalists who produce them. They will no longer be the exclusive prerogative of the giants of the web as it works today, with an evident paradox”, adds Repubblica .
So the regulation is what the authority itself will follow to manage disputes between platforms and publishers in the event that they do not reach an economic agreement on the use of journalistic publications. “I hope, in any case, that the controversies are limited. The AgCom regulation encourages reaching agreements in the greatest possible serenity” Giacomo Lasorella , president of the authority, commented to La Repubblica .
All the details.
WHAT THE REGULATION APPROVED BY AGCOM PROVIDES FOR FAIR COMPENSATION
Agcom has approved the regulation for fair compensation, which has as its main objective precisely that of facilitating the reaching of agreements between the players in the field.
According to the law, if within 30 days of the request to start negotiations the parties cannot agree on the amount of the compensation, each of them can apply to the Authority for the determination of the fair compensation, without prejudice to the right to appeal the ordinary judicial authority.
Within 60 days of the request, the Authority chaired by Lasorella indicates which of the proposals formulated complies with the criteria established by the regulation or, if it does not consider any of the proposals to be compliant, it indicates the amount ex officio. The regulation identifies as a basis for calculation "the advertising revenues of the provider deriving from the online use of the publications", net of the publisher's revenues "attributable to the redirect traffic generated on its website" by these publications.
Following the negotiation, a share of up to 70% may be attributed to the publisher, determined on the basis of predetermined criteria.
BASED ON OBJECTIVE CRITERIA
Specifically, the valid criteria for evaluating fair compensation are: number of online consultations of publications; relevance of the publisher on the market (online audience); number of journalists employed under national collective agreements; proven costs incurred by the publisher for technological and infrastructural investments intended for the creation of online journalistic publications; proven costs incurred by the lender for technological and infrastructural investments dedicated exclusively to the reproduction and communication of online journalistic publications; publisher and provider adherence to and compliance with self-regulatory codes and international standards on information quality and fact-checking; years of activity of the publisher in relation to the historicity of the masthead.
“Since the negotiation concerns economic issues, the main criteria are quantitative: the contacts on the sites, the advertising that is disseminated. But qualitative elements must also weigh, such as the number of journalists hired and the efforts that publishers make to ensure qualitative information” Giacomo Lasorella, president of Agcom, explained to Repubblica .
AGCOM REGULATION ON FAIR REMUNERATION TO IMPLEMENT THE EU COPYRIGHT DIRECTIVE
The regulation derives from the copyright law, approved in 2021 in application of the EU copyright directive . The aim of the legislation is to bridge the gap between the revenues received by the large platforms for the publication of journalistic content and those that end up in the coffers of the publishers, holders of the rights.
WHY AGCOM GIOMI COMMISSIONER VOTED AGAINST THE FAIR COMPENSATION REGULATION
So the authority for communications guarantees has finally dictated the rules of comparison between publishing companies and digital platforms, but it has not done so unanimously. In fact, Commissioner Elisa Giomi ( M5s share ) voted against the regulation. "As required by law, Agcom should play the role of arbitrator" Giomi declared "but this regulation does not adequately protect publishers and at the same time imposes disproportionate burdens on platforms, hindering rather than facilitating negotiations between the parties".
“The regulation – adds Giomi – provides that, in the event of no agreement, the compensation due to the publishers will be calculated using a rigid method based on how much the platforms earn from online advertising of journalistic content. The price should instead be set by those who produce those contents, i.e. the publishers, and the negotiation should start from this”.
APPLAUSE FROM THE PUBLISHERS' FEDERATION
Instead, Italian publishers are celebrating the possibility of "starting and concluding fair negotiations".
“The approval of the Agcom Regulation on the criteria for determining fair compensation in favor of newspaper publishers is an important and long-awaited result, which completes the framework of the implementation discipline of the Copyright Directive, transposed into our legal system more than a year ago ” commented the President of Fieg (Federation of Publishers), Andrea Riffeser Monti.
GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK REACTIONS
Finally, the reactions of the giants of the web, Google and Facebook, were more cautious.
“We have been actively working with Agcom, rights holders and other key industry players to clarify how Google search works and propose a fair compensation system,” Google wrote in a January 9 blogpost , before knowing the final text. of the new regulation.
“We are certain that the adoption of a balanced regulation by Agcom can lay the foundations for productive negotiations and agreements between the platforms and the publishers having the right. A reasonable regulation should equally recognize the value produced by both publishers and platforms, avoid introducing concepts of ambiguous interpretation and set rates in line with the market standard already established by existing agreements in the EU” added the Mountain giant View that recalls the results of the Extended News Preview program achieved in several countries in Europe, including Germany, France and Spain. Therefore, Big hopes to continue the Extended News Preview program also in Italy.
The reaction of Meta (Facebook's parent company) was more concise: "We will examine the regulation – said a spokesman – and we confirm our support for the objectives of the European directive on copyright".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/agcom-equo-compenso-editori-big-tech/ on Fri, 20 Jan 2023 11:19:31 +0000.