Microsoft, EU publishers team up to push for news payments

LONDON — Microsoft is teaming up with European publishers to push for a system to make big tech platforms pay for news, raising the stakes in the brewing battle over whether Google and Facebook should pay for journalism.

The U.S. tech giant and four big European Union news industry lobbying groups unveiled their plan Monday to work together to come up with a solution to “mandate payments” for use of news content from online “gatekeepers with dominant market power.”

They said they will “take inspiration” from proposed legislation in Australia to force tech platforms to share revenue with news companies and which includes an arbitration system to resolve disputes over a fair price for news.

Facebook last week blocked Australians from accessing and sharing news on its platform, in a surprise response to the government’s proposals that sparked a big public backlash.