The UK’s competition watchdog wants to create “greater incentives” for tech giants like Facebook and Google to bargain in good faith with news publishers over payment for content.

Two directors from the Competition and Markets Authority told the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee they favour a code of conduct being put in place in the style of Australia to ensure there are “fair and reasonable terms” between platforms and content providers.

They also suggested the new Digital Markets Unit, currently being run in a “shadow” non-statutory capacity until legislation is passed, could act as an intermediary to keep an eye on changes to the platforms’ algorithms without forcing them to be published.