Google still isn't happy with Australia's pending media bargaining laws, telling the government once again that it finds the mandate, as currently drafted, unfair and unworkable.
The search giant has been engaged in a stoush[1] with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) since August over the News Media Bargaining Code[2]. Google previously labelled the code as "unfair", while also saying it puts the "way Aussies' search at risk"[3], would result in a "dramatically worse Google Search and YouTube" experience down under, and "ignores the real-world value Google provides to news publishers and opens up to enormous and unreasonable demands".
This week, Google has said in a blog post[4] that "the draft code's arbitration model looks only at one side of the exchange … this leaves news businesses free to make extreme claims without digital platforms being able to respond effectively, making an unfair outcome inevitable".
"No business, in Australia or around the world, could accept this kind of extreme and unreasonable set-up."
The code currently adopts a model based on negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, which is aimed at facilitating "genuine commercial bargaining between parties, allowing commercially negotiated outcomes suited to different business models used by Australian news media businesses".
The ACCC believes the code is necessary to address fundamental bargaining power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and major digital platforms, such as Facebook and Google.
See also: Labor logic: Newspapers screwed up online classifieds so tech giants should pay up[5]
Google added that the code should preserve a system where publishers are free to decide whether their content can be found in Google Search or Google News, rather than imposing a system that forces Google to include snippets and links to news content and to pay