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As the News Media Bargaining Code agreements in Australia start to wind down, there is discussion about what will come next. Media academic Andrea Carson calls the codes, passed in 2021, "world-first" legislation because Australia was the first country to use competition law to get Google and Meta to pay news publishers for the news they distribute and profit from.

According to former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Rod Sims, about A$250 million flowed to news publishers each year. It's just a fraction of what would have been a fair price.

Globally, the code has had an enormous impact. Countries that have discussed putting in their own versions have immediately seen Google strike deals with local publishers in an effort to forestall legislation.

The amounts paid out are far less than what is owed. If there were equal bargaining power and Google had to pay for the intellectual property produced by others which it made use of, it would be much more. But something is better than nothing. Thanks to the Australian law, Google has paid out tens of millions of dollars to publishers around the world. We will never know the exact amount, as Google requires publishers to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Google is, of course, dependent on news to make its search more attractive to audiences and advertisers. Research in several countries has also shown just how important quality news is for Google.

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