Tech giants to launch major campaign to delay laws curbing power

Tech giants are set to launch a major lobbying campaign to delay laws which would curb their immense power, MPs are told

• Publishers can negotiate with tech firms over fairer price for their journalism

Tech giants are set to launch a major lobbying campaign that will ‘nullify’ new laws designed to curb their immense power, MPs have been told.

Peter Wright, editor emeritus at DMG Media, said platforms would try to change the appeals process for challenging decisions made by the Digital Markets Unit.

Instead of a judicial review, which is cheap, quick and flexible, they are understood to be calling for a merits-based process that is expensive and could take years to resolve.

This would essentially make the watchdog – which is vital in ensuring news publishers are finally paid fairly for their online content – redundant, he said.

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Wright said: ‘From our point of view, this is not truthfully about the justice of the decisions… [but] a delaying tactic.’

Tech giants are set to launch a major lobbying campaign that will ‘nullify’ new laws designed to curb their immense power [File image] 

Under the new regime, publishers will be able to negotiate with tech firms over a fairer price for their journalism 

He was speaking to a Parliamentary committee scrutinising the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, which will empower the new regulator. Research has shown the value of trusted news content to both Google and Facebook is £1billion a year – yet they only give £75million in return to publishers.

Under the new regime, publishers will be able to negotiate with tech firms over a fairer price for their journalism.

Mr Wright described how high-quality, public interest journalism was expensive to produce and that it was increasingly hard to fund given the current digital advertising market.

READ MORE: Tech giants accused of ‘scaremongering’ over fight against laws to pay for trusted news content

He said news websites – particularly smaller, regional publishers – needed a ‘level playing field’ where they were able to bargain with vast multi-billion pound platforms. Under the bill, the DMU will have the power to potentially force online giants to significantly alter their business models or fine them up to 10 per cent of their global turnover.

Following careful consultation, the Government agreed that any decision made by the DMU would be subject to a judicial review rather than a merits-based system of appeals. This is similar to other British watchdogs, such as Ofcom, and was said to reflect the DMU’s ‘expertise in deciding how best to promote competition in digital markets’.

Crucially, it was also noted that it would deliver ‘robust outcomes at pace’ – rather than a drawn-out and expensive appeal.

Mr Wright said he had heard that platforms alongside big City law firms were gearing up for a concerted lobbying campaign calling for a merits-based process.

This would mean ‘every decision by the DMU will be subject to appeals that are likely to involve weeks in court, months and years before decisions are taken’.

He added: ‘If that happens, the whole purpose of this Bill – the whole structure which we believe is very good and is legislation that is likely to be copied around the world – will simply be nullified.

‘It’s important that we stick with the judicial review process that’s in the Bill.’

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