According to internal documents seen by the Financial Times, the proposals, which are set to be published next month, will give publishers “exclusive rights” to their online content – forcing services such as Google News to agree new terms.
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It has been suggested however that member states could provide publishers with a compensation claim for uses under an exception.
The measures are part of a series of reforms which the European commission plans to put out to consultation in September.
The commission has come under increasing pressure from publishers to level the playing field.
“The sustainability of publishing industries in the European Union may be at stake, with the risk of further negative consequences on media pluralism, democratic debate and quality of information”.
The proposals argue that publishers of all size are still dwarfed by Google and Facebook making it “difficult for publishers to negotiate with them on an equal footing”. The commission is considering whether to grant such rights to news publishers.
But she said the size of Google would make it hard for publishers to reach a deal even with the exclusive right. “It would recognise their role as investors in content”.
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If introduced, it would mean Google’s parent company, Alphabet, might have to pay for the use of article extracts in its Google News service. In a market increasingly dominated by the distribution these internet giants offer, it may be the case that companies continue to make their content available free of charge in the hope of increasing reach. In Spain, Google reacted to a mandatory charge by simply shutting down Google News in that country. In Germany many publishers made the decision to simply refuse the levy, to keep traffic to their site from collapsing.
