Publishers 'need chance to fight for their lives', not wait for DOJ

Oct 21, 2020 at 06:27 pm by Staff


Legal action against Google under US anti-trust laws has been welcomed there and in Australia.

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims has welcomed news that the US Justice Department will pursue action against Google, saying it validates the ACCC's stance on digital giants such as Google.

While the US legal action is focusing on Google's market dominance in web search, he says it may lead to greater scrutiny of other areas in which the company has significant market power, such as app stores and ad marketplaces.

In the US, News Media Alliance president and chief executive David Chavern says search distribution issues are only part of the problem. "It is good that the DOJ is starting the process, but 'search distribution' issues are a small subset of the many issues presented by Google dominance.

"News publishers are particularly harmed by Google's control of ad tech - and that doesn't appear to be covered at all by the DOJ's action."

Chavern says local news is "in an immediate crisis" and says "Congress should act in the lame duck to make a very simple - and ultimately pretty narrow - fix: pass the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation supported by broad array of Congressional leaders, along with very diverse group of news publishers.

"Support for the bill is deep and broad," he says. "I think publishers need a chance to fight for their lives right now, rather than wait years for a long antitrust fight to resolve itself."

• News Media Alliance has produced a White Paper called 'How Google abuses its position as a market dominant platform to strong-arm news publishers and hurt journalism'. Based on more than a year of interviews and consultations with Alliance members, it outlines ways in which Google uses news content to its advantage across its products and services. Graphics for members' use are included.

Sections: Newsmedia industry

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