Forcing Big Tech to Pay for Local news
FP says Postmedia sees publishers sue Big Tech in U.S.
2021-04-27 08:45 ET - In the News
The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that struggling U.S. news publishers have been piling into the courts to launch antitrust cases against Google and Facebook, but the head of Canada's largest newspaper chain says that path is unlikely in Canada given the government's plans to address imbalances between big tech and publishers.
The Post's Colin McClelland writes that last week, publishers of 125 newspapers across 11 U.S. states filed a lawsuit against the tech giants, accusing them of monopolizing the digital advertising market and restricting the monetization of local news.
Even London's Daily Mail filed lawsuit of its own in New York last week. Meanwhile, Texas and nine other states are continuing with a lawsuit they began in December alleging collusion between the tech giants.
While court actions pile up in the U.S., the European Union is considering new laws and Australia has pioneered the use of legislation to push Big Tech to pay for using local news, an option Canada is studying.
The latter outcome is better than going to court, according to Postmedia boss Andrew MacLeod.
"We're confident that the federal government will follow through with actions based on what they've said to date publicly."