The European Parliament voted 438 to 226 (39 blank) on Wednesday, Sept. 12, to approve the European Commission's proposed regulation to overhaul copyright law, also known as the Copyright Directive. Entirely without controversy, this has not gone without controversy, with some news sites even talking about "the end of the Internet as we know it. One of the proposed articles responsible for this fuss is Article 11, which is also known as the "link tax."
Author: Edo Hoogervorst
Article 11 aims to provide better protection for publishers of press publications when using digital applications. Currently, online services such as Facebook, Google or Twitter regularly display (parts of) news articles on the platform without the publisher receiving any compensation for this. With the introduction of Article 11, such online services would no longer be able to share a link to press publications on the platform without a prior license agreed with the publisher. The latest approved amendments to the Copyright Directive do still allow use by private and non-commercial parties, as well as hyperlinking with individual words.
The link tax is not entirely new within the European Union. Both Belgium (2006), Germany (2013) and Spain (2014) have already introduced similar link taxes based on national legislation. To get an impression of the possible consequences for the Netherlands of Article 11 of the Copyright Directive, we can look at the effect of the link tax in the countries mentioned above.
After the introduction of the link tax in Belgium, it didn't take long until publisher IPM took Google to court for showing short pieces of news articles from "La Libre Belgique" in Google news without permission. Google responded by eliminating all links to the websites of the publishers who complained about the display of short pieces of text from its search engine (including the non-cached links) and from Google news. These publishers saw a drop in traffic to their websites, and Google's action was called "an attack on Belgian newspapers." After a protracted lawsuit, the publishers and Google agreed that Google would show the links to the publishers' articles again and did not have to fear new lawsuits.
A similar situation occurred in Germany. After the introduction of the link tax, Google no longer showed results from the websites of the publishers who sued Google for displaying the links without permission. Traffic to the publishers' websites that were no longer shown by Google dropped as much as 40%, so the publishers including VG Media therefore granted Google a free unlimited license.
The Spanish link tax differs from the Belgian and German varieties in that it explicitly prohibits the circumvention of the link tax by providing a free license. As a result, Google has taken its news service in Spain off the air altogether. The drop in traffic to publishers' websites costs millions of euros annually , according to research by Spanish publishers.
For now, therefore, the introduction of a link tax does not yet seem to yield the desired result. It is, however, possible that adjustments will still be made to the Copyright Directive. Before the Copyright Directive is finally adopted, a closed trialogue between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers will first take place, after which the European Parliament must give its final approval. The process is expected to be completed January 2019.
