C-18 Online News Act
Issue: Bill C-18 would require major online platforms to pay news organizations for using their content.
Key messages
- Canadians need access to news to actively participate in our democracy and society.
- Many Canadians access news through online platforms that reshare or link to original content produced by news businesses.
- C-18 is intended to ensure Canadian news businesses can negotiate fair compensation agreements with online platforms.
- We are ready to get started should the Bill receive Royal Assent.
- We will hold consultations to hear from Canadians and build the framework.
Supplementary messages
- Specific questions related to Bill C-18 should be addressed to the Department of Canadian Heritage.
- Our role will be to ensure fair negotiations between online platforms and news businesses. It would not be to determine what news Canadians receive or how they receive it.
Background
In April 2022, Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act, was introduced in Parliament. On April 18, 2023, the Bill was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications for study.
Bill C-18 will require large online platforms to negotiate with Canadian news businesses to make use of their content. If parties cannot agree, binding arbitration serves as a backstop.
The legislation proposes that the CRTC oversee this framework, including that it:
- Assess which platforms the Act will apply to, which news businesses meet the Act’s eligibility criteria, and whether platforms meet the exemption criteria.
- Oversee negotiation and mediation between parties, and deal with complaints of undue preference or unjust discrimination filed by eligible news businesses against platforms.
- Establish qualifications for and maintain a public list of external arbitrators, who will be responsible for final offer arbitration when eligible news businesses and platforms cannot reach an agreement.
- Establish and enforce a code of conduct to support fairness and transparency in bargaining in relation to news content.
- Engage an independent auditor to publish an annual report on the Act’s impact on the Canadian digital news market, including information relating to the total value of commercial agreements and other key information.
- Establishes Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) to help enforce the Act.
- Make regulations that recover the Commission’s costs in administering the Act from regulated platforms.
The amount of money generated will be determined by negotiations between news businesses and online platforms.
The Bill requires the CRTC to look at several factors in deciding whether platforms are appropriately compensating news businesses and can be exempted from the Act. These include:
- Whether compensation is fair.
- Whether compensation supports the production of local, regional and national news content.
- Ensuring corporate influence does not undermine freedom of expression and journalistic independence.
- Ensuring that independent local businesses benefit.
- Ensuring that a diverse range of non-profit and for-profit businesses benefit, reflecting different regions, official languages, Black and racialized communities, and Indigenous news outlets.
The CRTC would be empowered to issue penalties of up to $15 million per day against a platform that contravenes the Act or the bargaining code of conduct.
The CRTC has expertise in many of the areas required for this regime. It has experience overseeing processes like mediation and arbitration, undue preference complaints and codes of conduct. The CRTC is also accustomed to overseeing a regulatory environment that values and supports the importance of freedom of expression and journalistic independence.
Budget 2022 proposed to provide the CRTC with $8.5 million over two years to implement the new regulatory framework.
On February 22, 2023, Google said it is temporarily limiting access to news content for under 4% of its Canadian users, for a period of several weeks, as it assesses possible responses to Bill C-18.
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