Australia Passes Law to Fine Tech Giants That Fail to Pay for Local News

Australia passed legislation on Thursday requiring major technology companies to pay millions of dollars in levies if they fail to reach commercial agreements with local news publishers for content distributed on their platforms.

Under the News Bargaining Incentive, affected companies will face a levy equivalent to 2.5% of their advertising revenue unless they enter qualifying agreements with Australian media outlets.

Revenue generated through the scheme will be directed toward Australian news organisations, whose journalism contributes to user engagement and advertising income on major digital platforms.

The measure applies to Meta, Alphabet’s Google, TikTok and Microsoft’s LinkedIn, covering platforms with a “significant” social media or search service in Australia and annual local advertising revenue of more than A$250 million ($178 million).

Platforms can avoid the levy by reaching agreements with at least eight different publishers before the end of their financial reporting period. The value of those agreements will then be deducted from their levy liability.

According to the legislation, the agreements must support the production of news content or facilitate access to publishers’ news content on the platforms.

Deals with large publishers will receive a 150% offset, while agreements with small and medium-sized outlets will qualify for a 200% offset. However, any individual agreement will be capped at 25% of a platform’s total levy liability.

The Australian government said the legislation sends a clear message to digital platforms to pursue commercial agreements with local news organisations before their reporting periods end.

“This is an important day for Australian news businesses and Australian journalism,” the government said.

The News Bargaining Incentive was passed a day after Australia’s parliament approved legislation aimed at restricting gambling advertisements.