Hollande Pledges Intervention In 'Google Tax' Dispute

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

21 January 2013

French President François Hollande has recently confirmed plans to draft a "legislative or fiscal measure" ensuring that Internet giants such as Google contribute to the media for benefiting from and using information produced by them, in the event that negotiations between the two parties break down.

The French President underscored that "it is normal" that those who profit from the information produced by newspaper publishers contribute towards the work. It will be in this sense that search engines contribute to financing the press, Hollande explained.

Evoking the idea of a "Google tax," Hollande stressed that if negotiations between newspaper editors and Google fail to reach an agreement then he intends to intervene.

Reiterating the President's comments, French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti and Digital Economy Minister Fleur Pellerin reiterated that a bill will be submitted to parliament in the absence of a negotiated accord.

The French press association IPG and the US Internet giant Google have been in talks aimed at resolving the issue since the beginning of December last year, under the auspices of a mediator.

Editors are demanding that Google pay rights related to copyright, given the significant profits realized from advertising simply by referencing their titles. They now have until the end of January to reach an agreement.

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