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Views sought on issues for draft news media and digital platforms bargaining code

The ACCC is seeking views to inform its work on developing a new draft mandatory code that will address bargaining power imbalances between Australia’s news media businesses and Google and Facebook.

A , released today, sets out a range of issues for which the ACCC is seeking feedback and information; including what should be included in the draft bargaining code, how particular issues should be addressed, and how the code should operate.

“We are keen to tap views on all the issues and ideas involved with this code. Given the tight timeframe we are seeking precise views on the content of the code and this concepts paper will facilitate this,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.

“Our highlighted the acute need to address the imbalance in bargaining position between news media and particular digital platforms, and that is what the code will do.”

The concepts paper is available on the . Submissions in response to the concepts paper close on 5 June, 2020.

The Australian Government in April that it had directed the ACCC to develop a mandatory code of conduct to address bargaining power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms.

The Government has asked that a draft mandatory code be released for public consultation before the end of July 2020, with a final code to be settled soon thereafter.

Background

The ACCC’s digital platforms inquiry examined the impact digital search engines, social media platforms and other digital content aggregation platforms have on competition in media and advertising services markets.

The ACCC released its for the inquiry in December 2018 and a on 26 July 2019.

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