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Nine, Seven seek path to Big Tech damages under new digital regime

The lobby group representing free-to-air TV networks has thrown its support behind a proposal to curb anti-competitive practices in digital markets — and urged the government to go further.

John Buckley
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Over the last two decades, the media industry has bled advertising revenue to Google, which also owns YouTube, as well as Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and the e-commerce and streaming giant, Amazon. Shutterstock.

The nation’s largest TV networks want Labor to open up a path for them to pursue damages from Big Tech firms that breach a new regime targeting anti-competitive behaviour in the digital advertising market.

The call was made by the lobby group, Free TV, in its submission to a Treasury consultation process over the plan, announced late last year. The proposed framework aims to curb anti-competitive behaviour among major digital market players, including Google, Meta and Amazon.

In its submission, Free TV — which represents Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and Paramount-owned Network 10 — was broadly supportive of the proposal, which has been roundly criticised by the companies it targets.

But it called for it to go further and enable third parties that have suffered a loss as a result of the anticompetitive behaviour of tech giants operating in Australia to be able to use the regime as a platform for legal action.