Google and Facebook face fines of $10 million for using news content without media company consent

Google and Facebook will soon be forced to pay media companies for the right to use their stories or face fines of up to $10million for breaching a copyright deal.

In a world first, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released a new draft code directing the American search engine and social media giants to negotiate fair payment deals.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Google and Facebook had ‘an imbalance in bargaining power’ and this needed to be fixed.

The competition regulator is proposing new laws that would allow commercial media companies to negotiate ‘an appropriate payment for news content’.

Google and Facebook would be forced into third-party arbitration with media companies if they failed to reach an agreement, with an independent umpire to make a  decision within 45 business days. 

A maximum penalty of $10million would be imposed on the multinational companies if Google or Facebook breached a deal to share content and were convicted in the Federal Court.

The digital giants could also be fined the equivalent of three times the commercial benefit that obtained from illegally sharing the news content or  10 per cent of their annual revenue in Australia during the past year. 

The ACCC’s final report was published on Friday, three months after the government directed it to develop a mandatory code of conduct.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Google and Facebook had ‘an imbalance in bargaining power’ and this needed to be fixed. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is proposing maximum fines of $10million if they broke a deal with media companies