Abstract
This chapter compares and contrasts the Australian and EU policy responses to the problem of supporting sustainable news content in an algorithm-driven platform economy. I begin by analysing the problem of the under-production of news content and argue that this issue is best understood as arising from the market power of platforms in advertising markets. I then outline the development and structure of the Australian News Media Bargaining Code and the EU law. I go on to argue that the Australian Code is a better model as it directly addresses the under-production of news can and form part of a broader project of adjusting the principles and tools of competition policy to satisfactorily address platform business models.
The chapter has benefitted from comments received on drafts from David Brennan, Jock Given, Karen Lee, Derek Wilding and Genevieve Wilkinson. Any errors are mine alone. It explains events to the time of writing, May 2021. Since then, there have been significant further developments including Facebook and Google licensing media content in the EU, Facebook becoming Meta and the Australian competition authority's continuing inquiries into digital platforms. The chapter does not attempt to cover these developments.
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Notes
- 1.
Details of the final agreements remain confidential.
- 2.
Final multi-year agreements were reached in May 2021 (Kaye 2021).
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Lindsay, D. (2022). Australian and EU Policy Responses to Algorithmic News Distribution: A Comparative Analysis. In: Meese, J., Bannerman, S. (eds) The Algorithmic Distribution of News. Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87086-7_7
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