In the furore surrounding Meta’s decision to walk away from funding the news media in Australia there has been one calm voice, and it belongs to the head of the competition regulator.
There’s some irony to that. It was the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s own findings in 2019 of an imbalance of bargaining power between news companies and digital platforms that resulted in the news media bargaining code. The code, viewed by many as Rod Sims’ legacy at the ACCC, compels Google and Meta to strike commercial deals with media companies for their news content.
Fast forward almost five years and the ACCC is being asked once again to consider the bargaining power media companies have with Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb has been asked twice this week whether she has any preliminary views since Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones asked her to give him advice on whether to designate Meta under the bargaining code.
