Industry responds to mandatory payment code for tech platforms: ‘This is a watershed moment to benefit all Australians’

Last week the ACCC handed down its recommendations for a mandatory code which would see publishers and news media able to bargain with the tech giants for payment. The industry was quick to react, largely welcoming the suggestion, although some think more can be done.

After an 18-month investigation, a 624-page report and further months of consultation and review, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) finally handed down its recommendations for a mandatory payment code between the big tech platforms (primarily Google and Facebook) and news media publishers.

In a nutshell – publishers will be able to bargain with the tech giants to secure what they consider as ample funding for their work. The three-month negotiation period will be overseen by a regulator and if a decision cannot be reached then one will be made in arbitration.

The driving force behind the payment code is the apparently unfair relationship between the tech platforms and publishers, which largely benefits the former while resulting in the closure of newsrooms across the country. This is disputed by Google and Facebook – they claim the relationship is already a symbiotic one and that the publishers are greatly overestimating the importance of their content to the success of the tech platforms.

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