Australia requires tech giants to pay for news content

Australia on Thursday (20/8) passed a law aimed at pushing tech giants to strike commercial deals with local news media companies, imposing levies of millions of Australian dollars on companies that fail to do so.

The rule, called the News Bargaining Incentive, requires technology companies to pay a levy of 2.75 per cent of their digital advertising revenue in Australia if they choose not to make commercial agreements with local news media companies for the use of their content.

The funds collected will be channelled to the news media sector.

The levy applies to technology companies with annual digital advertising revenue in Australia of more than 250 million Australian dollars (178 million US dollars or around Rp3.15 trillion). Meta Platforms Inc., Google LLC, ByteDance Ltd., and LinkedIn Corp. are expected to fall into this category.

The policy aims to close a loophole in the previous law enacted in 2021. Under that rule, tech giants could avoid the obligation to make licensing deals with local media companies by withdrawing news content from their platforms.

Tech giants can avoid paying the levy by making deals with at least eight news companies.

Reductions or exemptions from the levy can be granted based on contract value, while larger reductions are offered for deals with small or medium-sized media companies to encourage investment.