Digital Law

Google has agreed to pay a substantial new fine of €250 million to the French Competition Authority for failing to comply with its commitments regarding related rights (also known as neighboring rights).

Law No. 2019-775 of July 24, 2019 “on the creation of related rights for the benefit of news agencies and press publishers”, that transposed Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, aims at ensuring fair compensation for news agencies and press publishers when their contents are reused on online platforms.

Given the extensive development of NFTs (“Non-Fungible Tokens”, Jeton Non Fongibles or “JNFs” in French), it had become urgent to assess the current legal situation and then to propose solutions or at least avenues of reflection to control their expansion, while respecting copyright and related rights (also known as neighboring rights).

This mission was entrusted to the Higher Council for Literary and Artistic Property (Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique) which presented its report on the subject on July 12, 2022.