Tech giants face new Australian news payment policy

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance will join Meta and Alphabet in paying new levies for Australian news unless they reach agreements with publishers.

Apple and Microsoft may also be affected if their revenues in Australia exceed $250 million annually.

Labor’s policy seeks to compel Meta to negotiate after it previously refused to pay for news.

Under the proposed legislation, the Australian Taxation Office will impose an annual levy on social media and search companies, exceeding the current news media bargaining code’s value of about $200 million annually.

Companies that negotiate payments to news publishers can offset these payments against their levy.

For example, if a platform faces an $11 million levy with a 10% uplift, it must secure at least $10 million in deals to avoid paying the ATO.

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Any shortfall between deals and the annual charge will be collected by the ATO and distributed to publishers.

Final policy details will emerge after consultations early next year.

The law takes effect on January 1, emphasizing quick negotiations with tech companies.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones clarified that the policy aims to facilitate negotiations, not increase government revenue, stating that digital platforms benefit financially from Australia and should support quality journalism.

Labor’s decision follows Meta’s refusal to renegotiate under the existing bargaining code, which could lead to significant job losses in journalism.

The Labor-controlled committee has deemed the current code “broken” and called for an alternative.