PDLN EuroHub Statement

PDLN (www.pdln.info) represents over 30 press licensing organisations across Europe and globally and has worked to promote efficient licensing of press content since 2008.

Working with PDLN a number of European publishers’ associations and licensing organisations initiated discussions (under the ‘EuroHub’ name), to help promote the effective implementation and management of the new EU press publisher right. The organisations are:-

-          IWP                                                                        Poland

-          Czech Publishers Association                      Czech Republic

-          Visapress                                                             Portugal

-          VLA Nieuwsmedia                                           Belgium

-          OSDEL                                                                   Greece

-          VG Media                                                            Germany

-          NDP Nieuwsmedia                                          The Netherlands

These organisations and PDLN note:

1.       A threat to independent journalism as platforms use their market power to monopolise online advertising and undermine licensing obligations.

 2.       The Press Publisher’s Right in the new Copyright Directive was designed to support independent journalism by ensuring platforms pay for the content they use.

 3.       Despite the positive recent development that platforms say they now want to pay for news content, some of these efforts are trying to subvert the Directive’s intent, especially the selective distribution of agreements for the Google News Showcase product, which contains anti-competitive elements.

We call on press, legislators, and licensing organisations to adopt the following principles:

1.       Protection of an independent press by ensuring the Press Publisher’s Right is passed quickly into law in all Member States,

 2.       Vigorous policing by national and EU competition authorities of any attempt to subvert the legislation (as in France),

 3.       Support for (or creation of) appropriately enabled licensing organisations to manage licensing of Press Publisher´s Rights at national and/or EU levels,

 4.       Support for an appropriately managed set of standards in such agreements to apply to all EU countries,

 5.       Ensuring the full application of Press Publisher’s Right on all platform services using content (search engines, aggregations or other services) and resist Google’s attempt to undermine the Press Publishers’ Right through News Showcase terms,

 6.       Ensuring any licensing of press publishers’ rights – bundled or independent to Google News Showcase - are transparent and are offered and applied equally to all qualifying publications within and across EU.

 7.       Review and removal from all such agreements of anti-competitive clauses or clauses which hinder the individual or collective licensing of the Press Publisher´s Right.

Contact secretarygeneral@pdln.info                                                                      18th November 2020