Ecosia is said to pay eleven percent of German sales to press publishers because the search engine links to their works. A portion goes to Corint Media.
The collecting society Corint Media (formerly VG Media) reports an initial agreement with a search website on ancillary copyright: Ecosia has agreed to pay out eleven percent of its sales to press publishers because headlines, thumbnails and short text excerpts can be seen in the search results. This applies retrospectively to the date of introduction of the ancillary copyrights, June 7, 2021.
The search results on the advertising-financed Ecosia website come from Microsoft’s search engine Bing. Ecosia invests all profits in sustainable environmental projects; less money is now available for this.
For the Corint Media managing directors Markus Runde and Christoph Schwennicke, the conclusion of a first sample license agreement with a search engine provider is not only a clear success for the ability to finance the free press and the work of journalists, but also a signal: “With this contract we have a traffic enforcement for appropriate compensation for the use of press products by all search engine operators.”
Arbitration with Google, Microsoft
Corint Media represents claims from publishing groups such as Axel Springer, Handelsblatt, Funke and DuMont, but not Heise Medien, for example. According to its own statements, the rights portfolio of the collecting society includes around 30 percent of all press products in Germany. Accordingly, Corint Media does not receive the entire eleven percent of Ecosia’s sales, but 3.3 percent.
With the contract, the parties also waive the right to have any claims clarified in court. Elsewhere it doesn’t work without Kadi: On April 1, Corint Media announced that it would take legal action against Bing operator Microsoft. In fact, the German Patent and Trademark Office confirmed in June that at the end of May an application from the collecting society for arbitration proceedings on ancillary copyright with Microsoft had been received.
On July 21, Corint Media then also opened arbitration proceedings against Google. The ideas are far apart. While the collecting society is demanding 420 million euros in license fees for ancillary copyrights for 2022 from Google on behalf of publishers, the data company has offered 3.2 million euros. In addition, Google relies on direct contracts with German publishers.
Meta sees no reason to pay
Meta Platforms, operator of the social networks Facebook and Instagram, meanwhile ignores the demands of German publishers in the millions. Meta believes it doesn’t have to pay anything because it doesn’t compile press content itself. The same content would either be uploaded by individual users, which is free of charge, or by the press publishers themselves. According to Meta’s terms of use, this is only permitted if no demands are made for it.
In any case, Corint Media is baking smaller rolls with Ecosia. According to netmarketshare.com, Ecosia had a global market share of 0.08% over the last twelve months. According to its own information, the Berlin-based company turns over around 28 million euros a year, which in turn refers to income from all over the world. Although Germany is Ecosia’s largest market, Corint Media should only make a low six-digit amount.
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