Google and Facebook will be forced to pay for news content in Australia, as the coronavirus pandemic leads to a drop in advertising revenue, AP reported.

Australian Finance Minister Josh Frydenberg said the Australian Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (ACCC) will release a draft platform policy in late July that provides for fair compensation for journalistic content downloaded from the media. According to him, Australia can succeed where other countries, including France and Spain, failed to do so.

“We won’t bow to their threats,” Frydenberg told reporters. “We understand the challenge that we face. This is a big mountain to climb. These are big companies that we are dealing with, but there is also so much at stake, so we’re prepared for this fight.”

ACCC tried to negotiate a voluntary code under which these companies would agree to pay traditional media for their content. But the parties couldn’t agree on “this key issue of payment for content,” Frydenberg said.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said Australia would take a different approach to Europe, relying on competition law rather than copyright law.

“We’re disappointed by the government’s announcement, especially as we’ve worked hard to meet their agreed deadline,” Facebook Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand Will Easton said in a statement.

“COVID-19 has impacted every business and industry across the country, including publishers, which is why we announced a new, global investment to support news organisations at a time when advertising revenue is declining,” he added, referring to a $100 million investment in the news industry announced in March.

“We have sought to work constructively with industry, the ACCC and government to develop a code of conduct, and we will continue to do so in the revised process set out by the government today,” a Google statement said.