The company, which has not publicly commented on the regulatory proposal since its publication in September, has now submitted its impressions to the federal government as part of a consultation on the topic.

The comments are expected to be published in full soon, but Google reported on Monday that the Trudeau government’s proposal did not allay its concerns about Bill C-18, or Online News Act.

“Unfortunately, the proposed regulations do not adequately address C-18’s critical structural issues, which were regrettably not addressed in the legislative process,” a company spokesperson told The Canadian Press.

Google, which has been negotiating with the Trudeau government in recent weeks, says it fears that “these fundamental problems cannot be solved through regulation and that legislative changes may be required.”

This law, set to take effect next December, aims to force digital giants to enter into compensation agreements with news media for sharing their content.

The draft regulation, presented in September, made it clear that any platform with revenue of at least one billion Canadian dollars per year and with at least 20 million users in Canada each month would be subject to the law.

Ottawa expects Google and Facebook to fall under C-18 based on their revenue, but there is evidence that this is not the case for Instagram. However, to be targeted, a digital giant must also enable news sharing.

So Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will avoid this if it continues to block journalistic content from being shared by Canadian users of its platforms, as it has been doing since August.

The same applies if Google decides to implement a similar blocking as the company has already threatened.

“We have been and remain in dialogue with the government regarding our concerns and we await publication of the final regulations,” it said on Monday.

By releasing its regulations clarifying the scope of C-18 in September, Ottawa hoped to respond to concerns and requests from digital giants.

Meta, unlike Google, expressed its opposition almost immediately.

“Today’s proposed regulations will have no impact on our business decision to terminate the availability of information in Canada,” it decided.

The exact contribution to be paid for each digital company subject to Bill C-18 will be determined based on a formula that is subject to change.

Under the current federal proposal, compensation will be determined based on the amount of the company’s total revenue multiplied by Canada’s share of global GDP and then multiplied by 4%.

Contributions in kind, such as training, can be taken into account in the calculation.

To be considered fair, an agreement must provide for remuneration that is at least 20% of the average ratio of all agreements between the remuneration paid and the amount corresponding to the journalists’ salaries. Full time.

C–18 aims to encourage digital companies to voluntarily enter into an agreement with a range of actors, including local media, otherwise a negotiating framework would be imposed on them.