The Australian government has announced that, this week, it will introduce a binding code into the Parliament, to address the bargaining power imbalance between news media businesses and digital platforms. The News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code was developed after public consultations spanning almost three years, Australia’s Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher said.
The government claims the Code will ensure that news media businesses are fairly remunerated for the content they generate. The Code is designed to support the Australian news media sector, including Australia’s public broadcasters, by encouraging the parties to undertake commercial negotiations outside the Code; enabling digital platforms to publish standard offers, which provides smaller news media businesses with an efficient pathway to finalising agreements with digital platforms; establishing a negotiation framework under the Code that allows both parties to bargain in good faith and reach binding agreements.
The Code is also designed to ensure that an independent arbiter is able to determine the level of remuneration that should be paid under a fair and balanced final offer arbitration model should the parties be unable to reach agreement; and set clear and workable minimum standards for digital platforms including requiring 14 days advance notice of deliberate algorithm changes that impact news media businesses.
The Code will initially apply to Facebook NewsFeed and Google Search. Other digital platform services can be added to the Code in future if there is sufficient evidence to establish that they give rise to a bargaining power imbalance. The Code will be reviewed by Treasury one year after its operation to ensure it is delivering outcomes that are consistent with the Government’s policy intent.
Google participated in the ACCC inquiry and consultation process since it was launched in 2017. The company recently announced it does not oppose “a code that oversees the relationships between news publishers and digital platforms” in Australia. Google says what it opposes “is a mandatory bargaining code that’s unworkable, both for Google as a business, and for Australians”. Google also argues that the proposed Code wouldn’t consider the company’s costs or the commercial agreements with publishers it already has in place. Facebook also planned to stop allowing publishers and people in Australia from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instagram, if a recently announced draft code becomes law.
Facebook believes Australia is drafting a new regulation “that misunderstands the dynamics of the internet and will do damage to the very news organisations the government is trying to protect”. “When crafting this new legislation, the commission overseeing the process ignored important facts, most critically the relationship between the news media and social media and which one benefits most from the other”, Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia & New Zealand, recently said.
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