Canada’s regulatory body announced on Wednesday that it will impose a fee on Google to recover the costs associated with enforcing the Online News Act, a law requiring major internet platforms to pay for news content hosted on their websites.
This move intensifies the ongoing friction between Canada and the U.S., particularly over issues of trade, border security, and digital taxation of American tech giants.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) stated that most of its operations are funded through fees levied on the companies it oversees. As of April 1, the cost recovery rule under the Online News Act will come into effect, with fees potentially varying year by year and without a set upper limit.
The new rule was finalized following public consultations, during which Google opposed the measure, arguing it would be “irrational” to place the entire financial burden on a single company. The legislation is part of a broader global movement pushing tech giants to compensate news outlets, addressing concerns that platforms like Google and Facebook are undermining traditional media by dominating the online advertising space.
The law, passed last year, applies to companies like Google and Facebook, which meet the criteria of large enough platforms required to pay news organizations for content. Google, after lengthy negotiations with Canadian authorities, agreed to a deal to pay C$100 million annually to publishers in exchange for maintaining news links in search results. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, chose to block news content on its platforms in Canada to avoid payments.
In its submission to the CRTC, Google described the new fee as an “unfair additional regulatory burden” on a company that has already invested in supporting Canada’s news ecosystem. The CRTC, however, clarified that the fee would only be applied to digital platforms subject to the Online News Act.
Google declined to provide further comment beyond its prior response during the consultation process.
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