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Australia to tax Big Tech over news payments
Australia will impose a 2.25% levy on the local revenue of Meta, Google, and TikTok unless they sign deals to pay local media outlets for news on their platforms.
Under the proposed News Bargaining Incentive, the government would direct levy proceeds to news companies, and platforms would get larger offsets for agreements with smaller publishers.
The plan would replace Australia’s 2021 news payment rules, after Meta briefly blocked news sharing before later signing deals with several local media firms that expired in 2024.
🔗 Source: Reuters
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
Australia’s tech levy rewards deal-making more than tax collection
- The plan gives platforms a reason to sign commercial agreements. Those deals can cut the effective rate to 1.5% from 2.25% of Australian revenue 1.
- Canberra also built in a bigger offset for smaller publishers. Agreements with them get a 170% offset, versus 150% for larger outlets 1.
- The rules cover digital platforms with more than A$250 million (US$179 million) in Australian revenue plus at least 5 million social media users or 10 million search users in the country 1.
- Meta and Google could face yearly charges of A$33.75 million (US$24.2 million) and A$202.5 million (US$145 million) if they do not reach agreements 2.
The levy lands as Meta’s ad business is set to pass Google
- The measure reaches Meta as forecasts put it ahead of Google in global digital ad revenue in 2026, at US$243.46 billion 3.
- That 24.1% growth comes from AI ad tools plus Reels, Meta’s short-form video product, rather than news content 3.
- The charge leaves Meta weighing the cost against its push to end or scale back news agreements in Australia 2.
- The rule answers an ad market squeeze. Meta, Google, and Amazon are expected to take 62.3% of global digital ad spending by 2026 3.
