REUTERS: On Thursday, Australia’s competition watchdog released draft recommendations authorizing Country Press Australia, a rural newspaper industry association, to negotiate with Google and Facebook for payments for news material on their platforms. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Country Press Australia (CPA) is seeking approval to allow its members to negotiate a payment contract with Google and Facebook for the usage of news content on the internet platforms.
CPA represents 81 news producers across the country who publish roughly 160 regional publications.
“Allowing the publishers of 160 newspapers to collectively negotiate with Google and Facebook should assist address some of the significant bargaining power imbalance that exists between these local news providers and the internet giants,” said ACCC Chairman Rod Sims in a statement.
The proposed licence, which would last for ten years, comes after the ACCC granted CPA an interim authorisation to begin negotiations in April.
Australia approved a law earlier this year requiring US tech titans to pay media companies for news material on their platforms.
(In Bengaluru, Sameer Manekar contributed reporting; Stephen Coates edited the piece.)/nRead More