The ACCC is seeking views to inform its work on developing a new draft mandatory code that will address bargaining power imbalances between Australia’s news media businesses and Google and Facebook.
A concepts paper, released today, sets out a range of issues for which the ACCC is seeking feedback and information; including what should be included in the draft bargaining code, how particular issues should be addressed, and how the code should operate.
“We are keen to tap views on all the issues and ideas involved with this code. Given the tight timeframe we are seeking precise views on the content of the code and this concepts paper will facilitate this,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
“Our digital platforms inquiry highlighted the acute need to address the imbalance in bargaining position between news media and particular digital platforms, and that is what the code will do.”
The concepts paper is available on the ACCC website. Submissions in response to the concepts paper close on 5 June, 2020.
The Australian Government announced in April that it had directed the ACCC to develop a mandatory code of conduct to address bargaining power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms.
The Government has asked that a draft mandatory code be released for public consultation before the end of July 2020, with a final code to be settled soon thereafter.
Background
The ACCC’s digital platforms inquiry examined the impact digital search engines, social media platforms and other digital content aggregation platforms have on competition in media and advertising services markets.
The ACCC released its preliminary report for the inquiry in December 2018 and a final report on 26 July 2019.
