Overview
- Lawmakers in the National Assembly passed a MoDem bill in a unanimous vote to make EU “neighboring rights” for news publishers actually payable by large platforms.
- Under the bill, platforms must give publishers full usage data on their content within one month, with Arcom able to step in on complaints and fine violators up to 1% of revenue.
- If talks stall for three months, Arcom can act as an arbitrator and set the payment owed for the reuse of news content.
- Deputies removed a committee-added rule that would have earmarked at least 25% of these payments for journalists, leaving how to split the money to outlet-level bargaining.
- The text also blocks platforms from downranking news during negotiations, borrows from Italy’s model, and could be tweaked in the Senate after an EU court ruling in May, as the culture minister noted; publishers point to years of revenue decline and say some platforms still refuse to negotiate.