Google may be obligated to pay as much as 500 million rand ($27.29 million) annually in compensation to South African media organisations following a ruling by the country’s competition authority, which found the technology company guilty of engaging in anti-competitive behaviour. Additionally, Meta and X are also facing potential fines.
In preliminary findings from an investigation into market practices, released on Monday, South Africa’s Competition Commission indicated that Google’s algorithm skews competition among news media entities by favoring global news sources in search results and top stories, while marginalising local language and community media.
The report stated, “This disparity has significantly contributed to the decline of the media landscape in South Africa over the past 14 years and will persist unless addressed.”
To rectify this situation, the Commission proposed that Google provide compensation to South African news media ranging from 300 million to 500 million rand each year for a duration of three to five years, alongside implementing changes to its search algorithms that would foster sustainable value sharing with the media through increased referral traffic.
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A final report is expected to be published later this year, with all involved parties required to submit evidence to support their positions by April 7.
In response, Google stated that it would thoroughly examine the report but disagreed with the assertion that it has disproportionately benefited from publishers.
“In 2023, our services such as Google Search and News generated an estimated 350 million rand in referral traffic value for South African publishers, while we earned less than 19 million rand from advertisements displayed alongside news queries,” Google articulated in a statement.
