Facebook, Google News Content Payment Laws Are Just the Start: Australian Competition Watchdog

[ad_1] Australia's competitors regulator has warned that deliberate legal guidelines to make the nation the primary on the planet to power Google and Facebook to pay for information content material have been probably simply the beginning of extra regulation for digital platforms. The Australian authorities introduced laws final month after an investigation it mentioned confirmed the tech giants held an excessive amount of market energy within the media business, a scenario it mentioned posed a possible risk to a well-functioning democracy. Under the code, Google and Facebook will likely be topic to obligatory worth arbitration if a industrial settlement on cost for Australian media can't be reached. "This bargaining code is a journey, if we see market power elsewhere, we can add them to the code," Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman (ACCC) Rod Sims mentioned in an interview for Reuters Next. Digital platforms face fines of as much as AUD 10 million (r…