Friday

29th Mar 2024

Belgian courts give Google a bloody nose

  • Copyright issues are becoming blurred in the digital age (Photo: Luxembourg EU Presidency)

California-based internet giant Google may have to rethink its popular news.google.com service after Belgian courts on Tuesday (13 February) said it is illegal to publish summaries of news stories and links without newspapers' consent.

"We confirm...the reproduction and publication of headlines as well as short extracts and the use of Google's cache, the publicly available data storage of articles and documents, violate the law on authors' rights," the ruling stated, AP reports.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The verdict will see Google fined €25,000 a day until the content is removed as well as 139 days' of back-fines, with other copyright owners in future being able to complain by email and demand to have their content taken down within 24 hours.

The case was brought by a group of 18 newspapers including Belgium's Le Soir and La Derniere Heure. Google in 2006 delayed a Danish news service for similar reasons and also faced legal complaints from Agence France Presse in 2005.

"We only ever show the headlines and a few snippets of text and small thumbnail images. If people want to read the entire story they have to click through to the newspaper's web site," Google said in a statement on Tuesday.

US analysts Sterling Market Intelligence say the Belgian decision could see other European newspapers threaten litigation in order to squeeze money from Google, which generates income based on the number of people it can attract to its service.

"Google is very fearful to open the floodgates to other parties asking for money and this decision may do that across the EU," the firm's Greg Sterling told Bloomberg in the run-up to the court decision.

"It's something which we are looking into with great interest," a European Commission spokesman said on the implications of the ruling for the EU single market.

The EU institutions themselves produce daily press reviews with news snippets for internal staff.

How Amazon lobbyists could be banned from EU Parliament

Amazon is one step closer to being banned from the European Parliament after the employment committee complained of a lack of cooperation in recent years — what is the process, and when can a final decision be expected?

EU deal on new gig-workers rules unlikely before June elections

Another provisional agreement on improving working conditions for platform workers fall apart on Friday, as four member states decided not to support it — making the chances of a directive before the June European elections unlikely.

EU agrees less ambitious rules on platform work

A new provisional agreement on the platform workers directive has been reached — but what has changed from the previous deal, and how will it affect the expected reclassification of 5.5 million platform workers as "employees"?

Opinion

Why are the banking lobby afraid of a digital euro?

Europeans deserve a digital euro that transcends the narrow interests of the banking lobby and embodies the promise of a fairer and more competitive monetary and financial landscape.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us