Related rights: Agcom fines Google €80,000 over YouTube

AGCOM fined Google €80,000 in relation to its video-on-demand services. The situation was reported by Nuovo Imaie, the collecting society for artists' related rights, specifically regarding certain conduct by Google, including the alleged failure to provide financial information necessary to negotiate a licensing agreement in good faith, as well as the alleged failure to submit financial reporting, both for the transactional service, the subscription service called YouTube Premium, and, finally, the free, advertising-based service called YouTube.

AGCOM, warning Google against repeating its behavior, ordered it to pay €80,000. "A decision of historic significance," commented Andrea Micciché, president of the new IMAIE. The report to the Communications Regulatory Authority against Google is related, the statement explains, to the failure to pay the fees due to artists for the exploitation of the works in which they participated.

"We are proud of the result achieved," concludes Micciché, "which marks the first step toward ever-greater protection of the rights of Performing Artists by our collecting society, which will continue to monitor the Big Players who use their works without paying adequate and proportionate compensation."