South Africa could require tech giants including Google, Meta, Microsoft, X, Tiktok and Open AI to pay a 5-10% digital advertising tariff or levy if they fail to implement proposed anti-competition remedies to their operations within 6 months.
- •Google could pay up to US$ 27.3 million in annual fees as compensation to South African media outlets for using their content.
- •Among the findings, the competition watchdog said the digital giants are disrupting web traffic to their services from local news outlets.
- •The Google algorithm over represents global news and subscriptions media while under representing local media with Google seen to self-preference YouTube.
“This inequity has materially contributed to the erosion of the media in South Africa over the past 14 years and will continue to do so unless remedied,” the report by the country’s anti-trust regulator noted.
As a remedy, the competition authority proposed that Google compensate South African news media by up to 500 million rand for 3-5 years and incorporate changes to search to create shared value and increase referral traffic.
The competition commission further recommended that social media companies desist from deprioritizing South Africa news media posts with links in the home feed, latest feed and For You algorithm, and restore referral traffic. Youtube and Meta were advised to increase revenue shares and improve the ability of news media to monetize content.
Google Pushes Back
South Africa’s Competition watchdog embarked on the inquiry in October 2023 to investigate whether certain market features on digital platforms that distribute news media content impede, distort or restrict competition.
Affected parties were advised to submit responses to the findings of the report, recommendations and proposed remedies by April 7 2025.
“In many cases, the inquiry has presented the outcomes it wishes to see while giving space for platforms to see how best this can be achieved,” the report said.
In a report, Google refuted the claims, holding that about 350 million rand was generated in 2023 to referral traffic for South African publishers.
“We have invested in products, training and partnerships to support publishers and the broader news ecosystem, and will continue to do so,” the company said.