Europe: Internet companies must pay copyright fee

Internet companies such as Google have to pay a fee when they process copyrighted content. This is what Günther Oettinger, the future European Commissioner for the Digital Economy, is arguing for. The amount of the proposed tax is not yet known.

The levy should be paid by all companies that use intellectual property, Oettinger told the German business newspaper Handelsblatt. “If Google uses and processes European Union intellectual property, the European Union may protect this value and charge Google for compensation,” Oettinger said.

The future European Commissioner, who will succeed Neelie Kroes on 1 November, notes that it still needs to be clear what exactly ‘intellectual property’ entails. It is not yet clear how high the fees that Google and other companies would have to pay.

At the moment every European country has its own copyright, but the European Commission wants to change that and come up with a pan-European copyright. Copyright levy would be part of that. Oettinger expects to need at least one year for the new copyright.