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MEDIA LINES / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Bill C-18, Online News Act

Publication date XX XX, 2023
Spokesperson – English Media Relations
Spokesperson – French Media Relations
Subject matter experts Daniel Pye
Communications lead Mélanie Beauchesne / Frédéric Lamaute

EVENT

On DATE, the Online News Act (Bill C-18), received Royal Assent. The CRTC will oversee the new regulatory framework requiring the largest, most prominent digital platforms that make news content available online to negotiate with news businesses in Canada and reach fair commercial deals.

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Table of Contents

  1. Which news organizations and digital platforms would be affected by this legislation?
    • The Online News Act will ensure news businesses in Canada are fairly compensated by the largest digital platforms that make news content available.
    • News business can apply to the CRTC to be eligible to bargain under the Act. To qualify, they must operate in Canada, employ journalists in Canada and follow a recognized journalistic code of ethics.
    • The largest, most prominent digital platforms that have a significant bargaining power are subject to this legislation.
  2. How will the CRTC be involved in the Online News Act?
    • The Commission will be responsible for ensuring that Canadian news businesses can negotiate fair compensation agreements with online platforms.
    • The CRTC will assess whether news businesses meet the Act’s eligibility criteria for taking part in mandatory bargaining, as well as which platforms the Act applies to and whether those platforms meet the Act’s exemption criteria.
    • The CRTC will oversee mandatory negotiation and mediation between eligible news businesses and platforms.
    • The Commission will develop a code of conduct to support fairness and transparency in bargaining between platforms and eligible news businesses.
    • The Commission will be responsible for dealing with complaints filed by eligible news businesses against platforms.
    • Each year, the Commission must publish an annual report on the Act’s impact on the Canadian digital news market. The report will be prepared by an independent auditor and published on the Commission’s website.
  3. Why is the CRTC being mandated to implement and administer the Online News Act?
    • The CRTC is used to operating within a regulatory environment that values the importance of freedom of expression and journalistic independence.
    • The Government has chosen the CRTC to implement and administer the Online News Act given its strong track record of implementing effective policies and overseeing processes such as:
      • mediation and arbitration;
      • undue preference complaints;
      • codes of conduct;
      • conducting public proceedings;
      • issuing exemption orders; and
      • maintaining ongoing monitoring systems.
  4. How will the CRTC ensure that digital platforms reach fair commercial deals with news businesses?
    • The CRTC will create rules for the bargaining process and develop a code of conduct to support fairness and transparency in bargaining.
    • The CRTC’s role does not involve imposing deals on parties. Agreements will be commercially negotiated by parties.
    • If negotiations fail, parties can also rely on mediators and outside arbitrators to resolve the dispute.
  5. How much money is Bill C-18 expected to generate for news outlets once it is implemented?
    • Negotiations between news businesses and platforms will determine the amounts generated.
    • The Bill would require the CRTC to retain an independent auditor to compile an annual report.
    • This report is meant to detail the impact of the Act on the Canadian digital news marketplace and must contain a range of information on the agreements between news businesses and digital platforms.
    • This includes information concerning the total commercial value of agreements under the Bill.
  6. Can the CRTC do anything to ensure that news businesses invest the money generated by their agreements into their news operations and not their shareholders?
    • The Bill would require the CRTC to look at several factors in deciding whether to exempt digital platforms from the Act. This includes whether an appropriate portion of compensation paid to news businesses is used to support the production of news content.
    • The Bill requires exemption requests from the digital platforms to be the subject of public consultations.
    • All interested parties will have an opportunity to provide their views on whether the platforms have met the criteria laid out for exemption prior to decisions being taken.
    • Under the Act, the Commission will ask an independent auditor to prepare an annual report on the impact of the Act on the Canadian digital news marketplace.
    • The report will contain information on whether news businesses have invested in their newsrooms further to the agreements.
  7. What can the CRTC do if a digital platform refuses to pay its fair share?
    • The CRTC will oversee the mandatory bargaining regime, which is backstopped by final-offer arbitration.
    • Under this model, both parties submit a proposal for the financial terms of their agreement and the independent arbitrators pick one.
    • The Act sets out factors that the arbitrators must consider in picking an offer, including the benefits that each party receives from the content being made available and any bargaining power imbalance between the parties.
    • The CRTC could issue penalties of up to $15 million per day against a platform that contravenes the Act or the bargaining code of conduct.
  8. What can the CRTC do if a digital platform refuses to make Canadian news content available?
    • The Act would not give the Commission a general power to control the types of content that platforms make available to their users.
    • If a platform decides to make content from only certain news businesses in Canada available, or to unfairly favour one news business over another, this could be the subject of a complaint before the Commission.
  9. What are the differences between the Australian regime and the proposed Canadian regime?
    • In Australia, a Minister must designate platforms for them to be subject to the law.
    • This would not be the case in Canada under C-18 where the bill itself sets out the application criteria.
    • Until the final legislation is passed, the full range of potential differences with the Australian legislation will not be known.
  10. Will both large and small news organizations benefit from this approach?
    • The Bill provides for collective bargaining, which would permit smaller news businesses to increase their bargaining power by acting together as a group.
    • Platforms must reach commercial agreements with a diversity of smaller, local news businesses, including Indigenous news outlets, to qualify for an exemption.
  11. What are the CRTC’s views on a former CRTC Chair’s suggestions to speed up the Act’s implementation?

    Response for media

    • It would not be appropriate for the Commission to comment on the former Chair’s proposed amendments to the Bill.
    • The Bill was sponsored by the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and questions about its drafting should be directed to his Department.

    Response for Senate Committee

    • Without commenting directly on the specific issues raised by the former CRTC Chair, we understand one of his main concerns to be how efficiently the Bill can be implemented by the CRTC.
    • The CRTC has experience implementing complex regulatory regimes. We are an administrative tribunal that makes evidence-based decisions based on public processes. These processes, including consulting the public, take time.
    • In our experience, the more procedural flexibility the CRTC has in terms of how it implements a Bill, the more efficient it can be. Currently, the bill proposes that certain aspects of the regime be implemented only in certain ways, which limits flexibility.
    • Accordingly, the Senate could consider granting the Commission additional procedural flexibility.
  12. Does the CRTC have the necessary resources (human and financial) to implement the new legislation?
    • Budget 2022 proposed to provide the CRTC with $8.5 million over two years to establish the new regulatory framework to ensure news businesses in Canada are fairly compensated by digital platforms.
    • The CRTC requires these additional funds to prepare for its new responsibilities, so that it is ready to implement Bill C-18 in an expedient manner.
    • Long-term funding may be collected by the Commission through cost recovery from platforms for costs incurred to administer the Act.
  13. When can we expect the new legislation to be implemented through CRTC regulations?
    • The CRTC is moving quickly to launch public processes to gather the views and evidence necessary to put in place this new regulatory framework.
    • Parts of the Act, including the bargaining regime, will not come into force until a date established by Order in Council. This date cannot be set until the Governor in Council makes regulations under the Act.
    • The CRTC will be in a better position to assess timelines if and once the Bill has received Royal Assent.
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