Platform 'News Usage Fee Conflict' Spreads to EU

EU, Following Australia, Proposes Imposition Plan

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Conflicts over news content usage fees involving giant digital platform companies such as Facebook and Google are expected to spread to the European Union (EU). Following Australia, which was the first in the world to pass legislation requiring IT companies to pay for news content, the EU's involvement is anticipated to set a major precedent for big tech regulations worldwide.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 25th (local time), EU countries are preparing to amend copyright directive legislation in June to impose news usage fees on digital platform companies including Facebook and Google. The core of the proposal is that when articles from specific media outlets appear on search engines and social networking services (SNS) dominated by big tech companies, these companies must enter into contracts with the media outlets and pay content usage fees.

Following Australia's government passing the world's first law requiring big tech companies to pay news usage fees, discussions on news monetization in the EU are rapidly gaining momentum.

The EU's push for news monetization stems from a desire to improve the position of media companies and concerns that IT platforms wield excessive power.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stated, "We cannot leave decisions that have a significant impact on our democracy to Silicon Valley."

Since December last year, the EU has been drafting the 'Digital Markets Act' and 'Digital Services Act' to regulate the antitrust behavior of IT companies. The news usage fee provision is expected to be included in these bills. The EU is considering imposing fines of up to 10% of revenue or forcibly splitting companies if they fail to comply, which is expected to exert considerable pressure on big tech companies.

Bloomberg reported, "In the future, Facebook, Google, and others will face regulatory laws similar to those in Australia worldwide."

Facebook has announced plans to invest at least $1 billion (approximately 1.1 trillion KRW) over the next three years to secure rights to use news content.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.