Google strikes content deals with 300 European publishers

LONDON (AP) — Google said Wednesday that it struck licensing deals with 300 news publishers in Europe in its latest effort to comply with a recently introduced European Union copyright law.

The tech giant signed the agreements with national, local and specialist news publications in Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland and said discussions with many others are ongoing.

It didn’t disclose how much it’s paying or give names of the news outlets.

European Union countries have been adopting into local law a 2019 EU directive granting publishers additional rights over their content.

The new law allows search engines like Google to link to and use snippets of news content, while giving publishers new rights when extended previews are used online.

It doesn’t, however, specify where the line between the two lies. The agreements are aimed at avoiding costly and lengthy lawsuits over that distinction.

Google last year announced copyright deals with several large German publications and a group of French news publishers.

The company also said it’s rolling out a new tool to offer licensing agreements to thousands of other European publishers, starting in Germany and Hungary.

The tool’s licensing offers “are based on consistent criteria which respect the law and existing copyright guidance, including how often a news website is displayed and how much ad revenue is generated on pages that also display previews of news content,” Sulina Connal, Google’s director of news and publishing partnerships, said in a blog post.