Australia’s parliament passed a new law on Thursday requiring leading technology companies to pay millions of dollars in fees if they refuse to enter into commercial deals with local media outlets for hosting news content.
Under the news bargaining incentive, companies with large search and social services in Australia and advertising revenue of more than A$250 million ($178 million) will be subject to a 2.5% advertising income tax unless they reach a deal with publishers.
Giants such as Meta (banned in the Russian Federation), Google, TikTok and Microsoft (LinkedIn, also banned) are subject to the new rules. Platforms can avoid fees entirely by working with at least eight different local publishers by the end of the reporting period. At the same time, transaction costs with small and medium-sized media will increase by a factor (200%), while cooperation with large publishers is given a 150% credit.