Reminds me a bit of some local Family History societies, they refused to allow parish register items on the internet, even under licence, believing people eould have to buy from them and thus have a steady income stream
How wrong they were, it only took a large commercial organisation to transcribe & do their own research, and the local FHSs lost all hope of any income for ever
Your point about Michelin is a very good example, one would think any town / village etc would be very happy to promote they have a GBG pub or two in their village / town, and GBG would welcome the publicity