Canada on Friday unveiled draft legal rules aimed at forcing Alphabet Inc’s Google and Meta Platforms to pay news outlets, saying Ottawa was addressing concerns the companies could face unlimited liability.
Canada’s Online News Act, which became law in June and is expected to take effect in December, is part of a global trend requiring internet giants to pay for news.
Under the draft regulations, Facebook and Google would need to voluntarily negotiate deals with news publishers in Canada and pay them a share of their global revenue based on a set calculation.
Both companies have said the law is not viable for their businesses, and Meta has stopped sharing news on its Canadian platform. Google also plans to block news from Canadian search results before the law takes effect.
The draft, which will be open for public consultation, will raise C$172 million (nearly Rs 1,050 crore) a year from Google and about C$60 million (nearly Rs 3.6 crore) from Facebook, a Canadian government official told reporters. in a briefing.
If companies fail to meet payment thresholds through voluntary deals, they may have to submit to mandatory negotiations overseen by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
The head of Canada’s regulator said last week that a framework for negotiations between news organizations and internet giants will begin this fall, with the goal of launching mandatory negotiations in early 2025.
The draft rules allow for monetary and non-monetary contributions to news operations and take into account existing transactions.
The agreement between Google and Facebook must also cover independent local, Aboriginal and official language minority community news operations, according to the draft rules.
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