Australia Passes Law Forcing Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn to Pay for News or Face 2.5% Levy
Parliament in Canberra approved the News Bargaining Incentive on Thursday, a law that taxes tech platforms 2.5% of their local advertising revenue unless they sign commercial deals with at least eight Australian publishers.
Australia’s parliament passed legislation on Thursday requiring Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn to strike paid deals with local news publishers or face financial penalties tied directly to their advertising earnings.
The News Bargaining Incentive replaces an earlier voluntary bargaining framework that collapsed after Meta walked away from its commitments.
Reuters reported that the government framed the vote as validation for an Australian news industry that has spent years losing advertising revenue to the same platforms distributing its journalism.
How the Levy Actually Works
The mechanics focus on avoidance rather than punishment.
Any platform earning more than A$250 million in Australian advertising revenue faces a 2.5% charge unless it signs agreements with at least eight local publishers before its financial reporting period ends.
Reuters reported that one deal cannot cover more than 25% of a company’s total levy liability, preventing platforms from meeting the requirement through one large agreement with News Corp Australasia or Nine Entertainment while excluding smaller outlets.
The shift comes as tech giants face growing scrutiny over digital licensing, including Apple negotiating news deals for Siri AI to secure publisher partnerships.
Deals must be finalized before the reporting period ends to count toward that period’s levy.
Money collected from firms that skip deals goes directly to Australian newsrooms, including the national wire service AAP, rather than general government revenue.
This keeps pressure on platforms to negotiate instead of simply absorbing the levy as a business cost.
A Second Attempt After the 2021 Code Fell Apart
This isn’t Australia’s first swing at the problem.
In 2021, it passed the News Media Bargaining Code, a world first that triggered a brief standoff when Facebook blocked all news content for Australian users before reaching a settlement days later.
The code produced results, with Google and Meta signing commercial agreements worth tens of millions of dollars with major and smaller publishers.
The arrangement later unraveled after Meta said it would not renew its Australian news payment deals, arguing content offered little value to its social platforms and that the funding model unfairly burdened one industry to support another.
That withdrawal left publishers without leverage and pushed the government toward a tougher automatic penalty model rather than one dependent on negotiations a company could simply exit.
This regulatory shift comes as Meta faces a landmark trial brought by 29 U.S. states over its platform operations.
Why This Vote Matters Beyond Canberra
What makes Thursday’s vote consequential is less the 2.5% figure than the precedent it sets for a specific policy dispute playing out globally.
Canada’s 2023 Online News Law pushed Meta to pull news entirely rather than pay, leaving Canadian publishers with less leverage, not more.
Australia’s redesigned model tries to prevent that outcome by making non-payment costly regardless of whether a platform blocks news, removing the exit option that worked in Ottawa.
That distinction matters because the Trump administration has threatened tariffs against countries imposing digital services taxes on U.S. firms.
Australia’s decision could give the UK and EU more political cover for similar laws, as seen in the UK social media ban for under-16s.
Whether platforms comply through deals or simply pay the levy will determine if this becomes the model that finally works.
Source: Australia passes law to levy tech giants that fail to pay for local news
