Google and federal government reach deal over Online News Act

Alphabet Inc.’s Google and the federal government have resolved their dispute over the Online News Act, with the tech giant agreeing to annually compensate news organizations $100 million and continue sharing Canadian news content on its platforms. Heritage minister Pascale St-Onge made the announcement during a press conference on Wednesday, explaining that the amount agreed upon will be indexed to inflation and will exempt Google from mandatory arbitration. If a better agreement is made elsewhere in the world, Canada reserves the right to reopen its regulations, she added. The new regulations do away with the original bargaining requirements, which would have seen individual news businesses each striking their own deals with Google, and instead allows Google to negotiate with a single collective representing all eligible media. The contributions will then be distributed across all interested and eligible news businesses based on the amount of full-time equivalent journalists they have on staff. It remains unclear how such a news collective will be structured. This new threshold is about $72 million less than what Heritage Canada last estimated would come from Google, but St-Onge noted it does not include non-monetary services and emphasized the option to make revisions if a better deal is made elsewhere. “This is a historic development,” said the minister. “It will establish a fairer commercial relationship between digital platforms and journalism in Canada.” Google had previously said the Act, and the proposed regulations that followed, were “unworkable” and left the company open to uncapped liability. St-Onge said this $100 million deal resolves those concerns. Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet, said the company is thankful to the heritage minister “for acknowledging our concerns and deeply engaging in a series of productive meetings about how they might be addressed.” “While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers,” said Walker, confirming that the company will not be making good on its threat to remove Canadian news links from its websites. An agreement with Meta Platforms Inc. remains a challenge for the government. The Facebook parent has refused to negotiate with the feds following its blockage of Canadian news in June. Google’s agreement “shows that this legislation works, that it’s equitable,” said St-Onge when asked if it has moved the needle on discussions with social media giant. “Now it’s on Facebook to explain why they’re leaving their platform to disinformation and misinformation instead of sustaining our news system and participating in the viability of our news sector.” “This is … an agreement that is going to resonate around the world as countries, as democracies, struggling with the same challenges that our media landscape in Canada is facing, are going to look at this, and we're very pleased we were there,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He also criticized Meta for still not coming to the table. “Unfortunately, Meta continues to completely abdicate any responsibility towards democratic institutions and even stability, but we're going to continue to work positively in those areas.” Heritage Canada says the final regulations will be published a few days before the Online News Act comes into effect on Dec. 19. – Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca

Google and federal government reach deal over Online News Act

News | November 29, 2023

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Google and federal government reach deal over Online News Act

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