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Watchdog holds fire on Facebook as it seeks new content deals

Local media negotiations with Facebook are “quite rugged” but the competition watchdog is giving the social network more time before enacting the news bargaining code.

Mar 12, 2021, updated Mar 12, 2021
ACCC boss Rod Sims says big savings can be made for electricity consumers

ACCC boss Rod Sims says big savings can be made for electricity consumers

The code is aimed at Google and Facebook and forces them to pay Australian news organisations for content.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims says he is happy to give the social media giant more time, amid reports Facebook is not negotiating in good faith with news companies.

“Obviously there will come a time where we might have to do something but I don’t think we’re there yet,” he told a Senate inquiry into media diversity.

While the ACCC is not directly involved in deals Mr Sims said he has checked in with companies to see how progress was faring.

“The sense I’m getting is that negotiations in many respects are going on but they’re quite rugged,” he said on Friday.

Reaching deals can be “pretty hectic”, Sims said.

“They take a lot of time.”

Google has signed deals with multiple organisations including Nine, Seven West Media and News Corp.

Facebook has signed a deal with Seven and has announced a letter of intent with smaller publishers Private Media, Schwartz Media and Solstice Media, publishers of InQueensland.

Sims said that showed how much more advanced Google’s negotiations with media companies were than Facebook.

“Let’s see how it plays out.”

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Sims said the code had given news organisations more bargaining power with the social network, but that did not mean Facebook had to immediately agree to terms.

“Now they can stand up to Facebook whereas they just clearly, absolutely, could not before,” he said.

“It was take it or leave it territory. Now it’s more even I suspect.”

Google initially threatened to remove its search engine from Australia because of the code, arguing it would pose a great financial risk to the company if it had to pay media companies for every link.

But its concerns were alleviated and the tech giant began striking deals.

Facebook removed news content for Australian users in response to the code, taking down a raft of emergency information pages in its swift and broad ban.

The pages were restored after Facebook won some concessions on the code.

Digital platforms will now be given one month’s notice before they are formally designated under the code and parties have more time to broker deals.

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