Government to implement recommendations of news media bargaining code review
December 21, 2023
On 17 December, the Government announced that it would implement the five recommendations in Treasury’s report of its review of the news media bargaining code. Information about the review is available here. A summary of the Code is set out on page 4 of the review’s consultation paper here. The Government’s response is available here.
In response to the recommendations, the Government has said that it will:
- introduce legislative amendments to facilitate the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) preparing periodic reports on the digital platforms that should be covered by the Code.
- give the ACCC information-gathering powers to assist it to prepare these reports, and to allow scrutiny of commercial deals between the digital platforms and Australian news businesses to effectively evaluate their contribution, and the outcomes resulting from the Code
- commission a further review of the Code after four years of its operation in early 2025.
You can see our earlier news items on the code here, here and here.