European Union lawmakers are reportedly seeking to force Big Tech companies such as Facebook and Google to pay for news displayed on their platforms, signaling a win for the news industry.
The Trump administration last month expressed opposition to similar legislative actions proposed in Australia, arguing it could hurt the U.S. tech giants.
The EU lawmakers want to build upon two recently proposed rules, the EU Digital Services and Digital Markets acts, to force the Big Tech companies to compensate publishers better, according to the Financial Times.
A similar initiative in Australia has received significant opposition from the tech giants, with Google threatening to leave the country if compelled to pay for news and Facebook warning it will stop users from sharing news if Australia passes such a law.
The U.S. last month attacked the Australian approach in a submission asking the government to “suspend” the plans for such legislation. Assistant U.S. Trade Representatives Daniel Bahar and Karl Ehlers, under the Trump administration, suggested Australia should “further study the markets, and if appropriate, develop a voluntary code” to encourage the tech companies to pay news organizations more.
The trade representatives suggested the Australian legislation could run counter to the U.S.-Australia free trade agreement.
“The U.S. Government is concerned that an attempt, through legislation, to regulate the competitive positions of specific players … to the clear detriment of two U.S. firms, may result in harmful outcomes,” said in the document, under the letterhead of the Executive Office of the President.
A Maltese member of the European Parliament, Alex Saliba, told the Financial Times that the Australian government’s approach to Facebook and Google had addressed the “acute bargaining power imbalances” between tech platforms and news publishers.
“With their dominant market position in search, social media and advertising, large digital platforms create power imbalances and benefit significantly from news content,” Saliba said. “I think it is only fair that they pay back a fair amount.”
The two tech titans have attempted to strike licensing deals to pay more for news in Europe after the EU significantly changed its copyright laws in 2019 in favor of publisher’s right to compensation for content that appears on online platforms.
