Google and Agence France-Presse announced a five-year "pioneering" partnership on Wednesday in which the world's largest search engine will pay an undisclosed price for content in Europe.
News outlets, which have been losing advertising money to online aggregators such as Google and Facebook for years, have complained about tech companies exploiting stories in search results and other services without compensating them.
The deal, finalized after 18 months of negotiations, is the first reached by a news organization under the 2019 European directive on so-called neighboring rights, which have been at the center of numerous disputes between internet giants and the media over payment for online news and other content use.
New legislation in France and Australia - fueled by media lobbying and public pressure - have increased publishers' influence, resulting in a wave of licensing deals worth billions of dollars worldwide.
The agreement with AFP comes on the heels of France implementing a copyright law that establishes "neighboring rights," mandating large technology companies to initiate negotiations with news publishers seeking a license fee.
AFP creates and distributes multimedia content in six languages to its clients around the world
After initially declining to pay French newspapers for the use of their content, Google signed a three-year framework agreement with a portion of the country's press early this year, but was fined 500 million euros ($566 million) in mid-July by the competition authority for failing to negotiate "in good faith."
According to AFP Chief Executive Officer Fabrice Fries, the partnership is a "recognition of the value of information" and will contribute to the agency's creation of high-quality information and innovation development.
The partnership also includes fact-checking training on multiple continents, the companies said in a statement. Details on the training will be disclosed soon.
Google declined to divulge the deal's financial specifics but acknowledged it would last five years.
Reuters previously reported that Google agreed earlier this year to pay $76 million over three years to a group of 121 French news publishers, excluding AFP.
Facebook announced several agreements in October, among them one that will provide two years of remuneration for use of French news media content and for participation in Facebook News, which it will deploy in France in January 2022.
Danish and French media groups teamed up to negotiate with tech giants, while Google announced in Spain on November 3 that Google News will reopen in early 2022.
