Tech giants ‘will have to pay fair price for news’

TOUGH new laws to stop tech giants exploiting consumers and rivals were unveiled in the Queen’s Speech yesterday.

The draft Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill will aim to better protect Britons from online scams, such as fake reviews and subscription traps.

It will give a new web watchdog longawaited powers to rein in the world’s biggest search engines and social media firms, and ensure they pay a fair price to news publishers for content. Those who do not will face fines of up to 10 per cent of their turnover. For years, news organisations have warned of the risk US tech giants pose to high-quality journalism in their stranglehold of digital advertising.

The Competition and Markets Authority estimates consumers lose £2.4billion from Google and Facebook’s advertising costs alone. The Bill will give the Digital Markets Unit – set up to tackle Big Tech – the power to force online giants to comply with codes of conduct. It also aims to ‘protect consumers’ hard-earned cash from scams and rip-offs and boost consumers’ rights’.

It will tackle subscription traps by requiring businesses to send reminders before they auto-renew, and ban fake reviews.

Rocio Concha, of Which?, said: ‘The Government must urgently prioritise the progress of this draft Bill so as to bring forward a full Bill to enact these vital changes as soon as possible.’

THREE cheers for ministers for promising legislation to curb the power of tech giants including Google and Facebook.

These firms will be forced to pay media organisations a fair price for news content which helps drive their vast profits.

For far too long, the cowboys of Silicon Valley have abused their dominant positions to exploit high-quality journalism.

It’s high time they were reined in.