The country's competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is developing a mandatory code to help ‘level the playing field in the media landscape’, said treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

The decision to develop a mandatory code comes after talks with Facebook and Google failed to create a voluntary code to address complaints by local publishers that the tech giants have too tight a grip on advertising.

Along with the sharing of revenue generated from news, the code would also establish a penalty and binding dispute resolution mechanisms.

France has also started to develop ways to rebalance the relationship between digital platforms and publishers, through the French Competition Authority’s decision to issue an emergency injunction. This ordered Google to negotiate with publishers within a three-month period, resulting in a remuneration package based on press publishers’ rights (Article 15 of the recently transposed EU Copyright Directive.)