Google says Australia’s news pay law is unworkable

A Google executive said on Friday that an Australian bill to charge digital platforms for news was unworkable and that its proposed arbitrage model was biased in favor of media companies.

Google Australia and New Zealand chief executive Mel Silva has made her first public comments on the details of the bill since it was introduced into parliament last week.

The so-called mandatory trading code for news media and digital platforms would force Google and Facebook to compensate Australian news media for the journalism to which they are linked.

This is forcing Google to pay to display links in an unprecedented intervention that would fundamentally break the functioning of search engines, Silva said in a statement.

If a platform and a news company fail to agree on a topical price after three months of negotiations, a three-member arbitration panel will be appointed to make a binding payment decision.

Silva said that “binding arbitration in the code could be a reasonable safety net – as long as the arbitration model is fair.”

However, the proposed arbitration model was “biased towards the interests of one type of business,” Silva said, referring to the media.

Google said it provided a better model with Google News Showcase. Google pays participating publishers to deliver paid content to News Showcase users through the model it launched in October.

“By imposing final offer arbitration with biased criteria, it encourages publishers to resort to arbitration rather than reaching an agreement,” Silva said of the government model.

Swinburne University media lecturer Belinda Barnet said Google was championing its own model because it wanted more bargaining power than media companies.

It’s a cynical ploy from Google, Barnet said. They tried the disinformation campaign, which didn’t work, and now they’re saying, ‘We can do it better. We are already doing better. “”

News Showcase “benefits the major players,” while the Australian government wanted payment for information to be “fair and widespread,” Barnet said.

The details of the bill will be considered by a Senate committee before lawmakers vote on it next year.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who introduced the bill to parliament, said in a statement that Google may make a submission to this committee before releasing its findings in February.

Violations of the code, such as failure to negotiate in good faith, would be punishable by a fine of A $10 million ($7.4 million) or the equivalent of 10% of annual turnover in Australia .