The City of Ottawa has agreed to place a $100 million annual cap on the payments Google must make to media companies when the government’s controversial online news bill takes effect at the end of the year.
Wednesday’s announcement saw the Liberals bow to the tech giant’s demands after Google threatened to remove news from its platform in February.
The Online News Act requires tech giants to enter into indemnification agreements with news publishers for content on their sites that generates revenue for companies like Google.
Broadcasters, French-language and Indigenous news outlets will also be subject to the contract, as will newspapers, with draft regulations suggesting the amount would be linked to the number of full-time reporters.
Google would donate up to $172 million to news organizations, according to a formula in the government’s draft regulations to implement the bill. Google balked, saying the figure was expected to be closer to $100 million, based on preliminary estimates from Canadian heritage officials.
After long negotiations, the company appears to have gotten what it wanted.
Still, Canadian Heritage Minister Pascal St-Onge insisted Wednesday that the agreement is ultimately a victory for the government and the local news publishers it seeks to support, calling it a “historic development.” is.
“We have found a path forward to answer Google’s questions about the process and this legislation,” he told Parliament Hill. “Google wanted certainty about the amount of compensation it would have to pay to Canadian news organizations.” Stated.
“Canada reserves the right to reinstate restrictions if better agreements are reached in other parts of the world,” she added.
St-Onge also noted that the $100 million figure is indexed to inflation.
Kent Walker, Google’s president of international affairs, thanked the minister for “recognizing our concerns and engaging deeply in a series of productive meetings about how to address them.”
He said in a statement that “extensive discussions” addressed the company’s “core issues” with the bill.
“We will continue to drive valuable traffic to Canadian publishers while working with the government through the exemption process under the soon-to-be-announced regulations,” Walker said.
The agreement allows Google to comply with the law by paying money to a single collective bargaining unit that acts as a media fund.
Meanwhile, Meta responded simply by blocking all news content from Canadian users on its largest platforms, Instagram and Facebook. The company’s statement on Wednesday suggested its hard-line approach remains unchanged.
“Unlike search engines, we do not actively retrieve news from the internet and place it in your feeds, and the only way we can reasonably comply with online news laws is to We have been clear for many years that our intention was to end the offering.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was pleased with the agreement with Google and was hopeful that Meta would eventually come to fruition.
“Unfortunately, Meta continues to completely abdicate its responsibility to democratic institutions and stability,” he said, “but we will continue to work positively in these areas.”
News Media Canada, a lobby group for hundreds of Canadian newspapers and magazines, said last month that it agrees with many of the issues raised by Google in exchanges over how the bill would be implemented.
The group argued there should be a cap on the amount search giants must pay under the law.
But Friends, a Canadian broadcaster advocacy group, said the deal does not provide the support for journalism it had hoped for.
“We will look to regulations to ensure that small, independent, equity-seeking media groups have access to funding,” executive director Mara Boltman said in a statement.
Heritage Canada officials said the final regulations of the law, expected to be submitted by mid-December, also address another concern from Google: that the law specifies links to news sites as a basis for payment. He said that it will be something that will be done.
The official said the final regulations will make clear that Google’s payments are meant to support news publishers and broadcasters, not for news links.
CBC and Radio-Canada will also receive a share of the $100 million, but that will be determined once regulations are finalized.
Canadian Heritage said that in addition to financial contributions, Google will continue to provide Canadian news companies with programs such as business development training, tools and resources, and support for non-profit journalism projects. .
Google announced Wednesday that the deal marks an immediate change to existing agreements it has with Canadian publishers under the Google News Showcase deal, which is part of a $1 billion global investment.
The company said it will review its ongoing investments in Canada once the final regulations are published.
Google declined to say how much it already pays publishers under existing contracts, saying such deals are confidential commercial arrangements.
Companies subject to the Online News Act have gross worldwide revenues of $1 billion or more in a calendar year and “operate in the search engine or social media markets that distribute and provide access to news content within Canada.” The company must have at least $20 million in revenue. Average monthly unique visitors or average monthly active users in Canada.
So far, Google and Meta are the only companies that meet these criteria.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2023.
Mickey Jurik, Canadian Press