South Africa to probe Google, Meta over potential anti-competitive practices with the press
South Africa's Competition Commission is going after tech Goliaths Meta and Google – the point of the investigation is to conclude if there’s any unfair competition with news publishers by using their content to generate ad revenue (via Reuters).
The scope of the investigation will also include among other things market features that may “distort competition for advertising revenue” between news media companies and digital platforms such as Google and Meta – and if these are affected by imbalances in bargaining power.
"The inquiry comes at a critical moment for the media industry as news consumption rapidly shifts online and traditional sources of funding to print and broadcast advertising decline," Commissioner Doris Tshepe told journalists. Chief Economist and Acting Deputy Commissioner James Hodge said media consumers are increasingly relying on video-sharing platforms.
Both Google and Meta have experience with those types of criticisms, with Google even recently agreeing to a large payment to publishers in Germany.
The scope of the investigation will also include among other things market features that may “distort competition for advertising revenue” between news media companies and digital platforms such as Google and Meta – and if these are affected by imbalances in bargaining power.
Both Google and Meta have experience with those types of criticisms, with Google even recently agreeing to a large payment to publishers in Germany.
Apart from the search engine giant and Facebook’s parent company, there’ll be many more platforms investigated by South Africa's Competition Commission: X, Bing, YouTube, TikTok, and Google Ads will be included in the inquiry.
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