Canada's Online News Act big boost to Indian newspapers and their websites

NEW DELHI: The recently passed Canadian Online News Act that seeks to rein in news intermediaries like Google is a big boost to Indian newspapers and their digital news editions, the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) has stated.  

Prominent Indian newspapers and its digital editions have been representing against what they see as Google's abuse of its monopoly and position.

According to newspaper sources, Google earns a huge amount of advertisement revenues on the content generated by the digital editions of these newspapers. However, there is no fair payback or sharing of revenues by Google causing huge financial losses to the news publishers in India.

According to news industry sources, such orders will encourage and empower Indian lawmakers and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to implement fair play and also support the growth of news media in India.

In Canada, an Online News Act has been enacted and applies to those digital news intermediaries and giants like Google who have significant leverage when it comes to online news.

The proposed rule prompts platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers in a fair manner for their content. It may be noted that Australia had also passed a similar ground-breaking law last year.

Top Indian newspapers and their digital editions are represented by DNPA in India in a similar fight against Google for fair play in India. The order in Canada has come at a time when CCI has issued a notice to Google on the basis of a complaint filed by DNPA at CCI.

The DNPA filed a complaint against Alphabet, Google, Google India Private Limited and Google Ireland Limited (Google/OPs) under Section 19(1)(a) of the Competition Act, 2002 alleging violation of Section 4 of the Act.

The association believes that over 50 per cent of the total traffic on the news websites is routed through Google. Being the dominant player in this field, Google through its algorithms determines which news website gets discovered via search.

The CCI ordered an inquiry against Google for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the digital advertising market on a complaint filed by the DNPA. On January 7, the commission directed the Director General (DG) to initiate an investigation into the matter under the provisions of Section 26(1) of the Act.
 
The association stated that the content produced by news media companies provides the platform on which ads can be run. However, online search engines end up walking away with the major chunk of the revenue/returns.

Google is the major stakeholder in the digital advertising space. Sources said that DNPA believes that Google has abused its dominant position in the market and violated various Sections of the Competition Act, 2002 while unilaterally deciding the amount to be paid to the publishers for the content created by them, as well as the terms on which the aforesaid amounts have to be paid.