Coming soon to Israel? New law forces tech giants to pay for news content

Australia approved a law last Thursday that requires tech giants to pay levies of millions of dollars if they do not sign commercial agreements with local media outlets for news that appears on their platforms, according to Reuters. Under the News Bargaining Incentive, companies will be liable for 2.5% of their advertising revenue unless they reach such agreements.

"The legislation is here, and the message to platforms to pursue commercial agreements is clear," the Australian government said in a statement.

The agreements must be finalized before the end of a digital platform's financial reporting period to be used to offset its liability for that period. This is an important day for the news business in Australia and for Australian journalism.

The money collected is intended for local Australian media outlets, whose content helps increase user engagement and advertising revenue on the tech platforms. The levy will apply to Meta, Google, TikTok, and LinkedIn—companies with local advertising revenue of more than 250 million Australian dollars (approximately 178 million US dollars).

The platforms will be able to avoid the charge if they sign agreements with at least eight different publishers by the end of their reporting period. The value of the agreements will be offset against the company's levy liability, provided they support the production of news content or relate to news content of the publishers that is uploaded to the network via the platform.

The law also sets different offset tiers: spending on large publishers will be offset at a rate of 150%, and spending on small and medium-sized media outlets will be offset at a rate of 200%. Each individual agreement will be capped at 25% of the platform's levy liability.

The approval of the News Bargaining Incentive came a day after the Australian parliament approved laws restricting gambling advertisements.