Google will need to pay for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) implementation of the Online News Act, per a decision from the commission.

The CRTC’s operations are mostly funded by fees charged to the companies it regulates. Because of this, the Online News Act included Cost Recovery Regulations that apply to what the commission calls digital news intermediaries, referring to online platforms like Google that make news content available to Canadians.

Google, naturally, disputed the cost recovery. In an intervention the company filed with the CRTC, it argued that it incurred lower regulatory costs by striking a deal with the Canadian Journalism Collective to contribute $100 million to news businesses in Canada. Because of that deal, the CRTC didn’t oversee mandatory bargaining between Google and news business, thus lowering the regulatory cost for the commission.

Elsewhere, Google argued that it shouldn’t be required to pay the entirety of the CRTC’s regulatory costs despite being the only company to which cost recovery would currently apply. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, avoided regulation by removing news content from its platforms in Canada.

The CRTC, however, decided against Google. It acknowledged that Google’s deal would lower regulatory costs for the commission and said that this, in turn, would lower the costs passed on to Google. Similarly, the CRTC said that if there is only one company regulated under the Online News Act, it must charge that company for all the costs of regulating.

The Cost Recovery Regulations will come into effect starting April 1, 2025.

Source: CRTC