Australia vs. Google & Facebook: Who Won and What’s the Fallout for the Rest of the World?

Australia is attracting worldwide attention with its ground-breaking law requiring Google and Facebook to pay for displaying news content on their services. This change has been driven by the dominance of digital platforms in respect of online advertising revenues, corresponding declining revenues of traditional news media creators, and the overall impact on the creation and distribution of quality content and journalism. While private agreements for payment of news remain possible under the new regime, a failure to agree will mean that an arbitral panel decides. Is this setting a precedent in the online world for other content creators beyond news; one that is less reliant on intellectual property rights and more focused on competition and antitrust laws? This is one of the main concerns of the digital giants, together with the potential for the rest of the world to follow Australia’s lead.