Australia has passed a legislation requiring the leading industry players to pay millions of dollars if they fail in reaching commercial deals with local news publications.
Under the News Bargaining Incentive, companies including Meta, Google, TikTok and Microsoft’s LinkedIn will see a levy of 2.5% of their Australian advertising revenue if they do fail to reach a deal with the news organisations.
The measure applies to platforms with a greater search or social media service in Australia and over A$250 million ($178 million) in local advertising revenue.
As per the government, the scheme is particularly designed to ensure that technology platforms contribute to the Australian news industry, whose content assists in generating user engagement and advertising revenue.
Companies can avoid the levy by reaching agreements with at least eight different publishers before the end of their reporting period. Payments made under those agreements will then offset the amount owed under the levy.
The legislation offers extra incentives for supporting smaller publishers. Spending with large news organisations receives a 150% offset, while spending with small and medium-sized outlets gets a 200% offset.
However, any individual deal can account for no more than 25% of a platform’s total levy liability.
The Australian government stated the legislation sends a clear message to the tech giants to pursue commercial agreements with news organisations and described the move as an essential step for Australian journalism.
The law comes amid growing international efforts to make technology platforms compensate publishers for the use and distribution of news content.
The legislation was passed a day after the country’s parliament approved new restrictions on gambling advertisements, marking a major move by the government.
