Canada’s Online News Act and the open call process

On December 15, 2023, the Government of Canada released the Online News Act’s Application and Exemption Regulations. This established a timeframe for platforms, like Google, to bargain with news businesses – or a single group of news businesses – and seek an exemption. It also established a timeframe for an open call process designed for news businesses that could be designated as eligible under the Act to self-identify in order to benefit from our new contribution to the Canadian news ecosystem.

The open call for prospective eligible news businesses was initiated on February 28, 2024 and closed at midnight ET on April 30, 2024, and our goal is to meet all of the conditions for exemption. This includes selecting a single collective responsible for distributing funds to those news businesses identified during the open call.

As we work through the exemption process, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian news publishers and Canadians will be able to continue enjoying the Google products they know and love.

The Online News Act’s Application and Exemption Regulations mandate that platforms run and publish an open call process to qualify for an exemption order.

We initiated our open call process effective February 28, 2024 and closed it April 30, 2024, at midnight ET.

Under the regulations, all news businesses that wished to benefit from our new contribution to the Canadian news ecosystem, and could be designated as eligible under the Act, were required to register prior to the closing of the open call.

The final list of news businesses replying to the open call can be found here.

As part of the exemption process, as outlined in the Online News Act’s final regulations, we plan to establish an agreement with a single collective responsible for representing all news businesses that respond to the open call. That agreement will include the provision of $100 million dollars (Canadian) annually, indexed to inflation, to be distributed in accordance with the regulations.

The single collective must:

1. Commit to providing basic reporting and accounting of funds distributed to news businesses to both Google and the membership of the collective.
2. Commit to developing and publishing a plan and principles for managing publisher eligibility and funds distribution.
3. Assume sole responsibility for settling any and all disputes arising from members.

Key principles informing our selection of the single collective will include:

1. Representation: The single collective should represent the full diversity of the Canadian news ecosystem and its interests.
2. Governance: The single collective should have a robust and well documented governance structure, including but not limited to board composition, decision making and dispute resolution. This governance structure should reflect the interests and needs of the full range of news businesses identified through the open call.
3. Transparency: The single collective should operate with a high level of transparency with membership, including but not limited to membership composition, reporting of payments and administrative fees.
4. Fees: The single collective should minimize administrative fees as much as possible in order to maximize the portion of funds that reach news businesses — and commit that those fees are used solely for the purposes of distributing funds.

Any groups or organizations interested in serving as this single collective are asked to submit an expression of interest to c18singlecollective@google.com no later than Friday, March 29, 2024. Those groups or organizations will subsequently receive a request for additional information and be asked to submit a more detailed proposal as the next step in the process.