The National Business Review has banned global financial services giant Macquarie from subscribing to the publication and is seeking damages from the Australian-headquartered firm for allegedly breaching NBR’s copyright.
NBR’s terms and conditions specify that a subscription cannot be shared with others and to do so is a breach of copyright.
Last October, NBR secured settlements from three leading businesses after the online publication began investigating several large businesses which appeared to be breaching its copyright and subscription terms and conditions by sharing small numbers of subscriptions widely among their staff.
In December, a further company agreed to pay damages after admitting it had been breaching the publication’s copyright since 2022.
The exact terms of the settlements, including the names of the firms, is confidential, but each firm paid legal costs and agreed to buy the appropriate number of subscriptions.
Now, NBR publisher Todd Scott has banned ASX-listed Macquarie Group – which employs close to 20,000 staff globally, has a market capitalisation of A$79 billion and recorded a net profit of A$3.71b in the March 2025 financial year – for allegedly breaching NBR’s copyright.
Macquarie had one subscription to NBR, and the publication’s investigations have found apparent widespread misuse of that subscription. For example, since last October, up to 35 different people appear to have used the single subscription.
In December, a Macquarie representative sought pricing for five to 10 subscriptions to NBR following publicity around NBR’s crackdown on copyright.
That representative did not then respond to NBR enquiries. The company contacted NBR again on Wednesday this week, after NBR made media enquiries ahead of publishing this story.
Scott has banned Macquarie and instructed his legal team to seek damages. The ban will only be lifted after damages are paid and an appropriate number of NBR subscriptions are purchased.
Scott said other businesses that were breaching NBR’s copyright should swiftly move to purchase the appropriate number of subscriptions. The publication had developed a sophisticated system to flag those who were breaching its terms and copyright conditions and would continue to take action against them.
“When we first took action against three large firms for sharing small numbers of subscriptions widely among their staff, we warned others had until the end of November to purchase the appropriate number of subscriptions for their usage.
“With the passing of that deadline, NBR will take action against those who continue to steal our content. Large organisations with very few subscriptions who feature in NBR or have an obvious interest in our leading business and political news and analysis are a clear target for our ongoing investigations ...
“Following a couple of years in which several high-profile media businesses have folded in this country, New Zealand businesses and Government departments need to ensure they are backing the industry appropriately.”
The allegations of copyright breaches were put to Macquarie, which did not provide comment for this story or deny the allegations.
Macquarie’s ban comes after the Inland Revenue Department last year admitted it shared NBR articles with hundreds of staff in breach of the publication’s copyright – a move which caused a loss of at least $36,000 to NBR.
Talks over an appropriate damages payment ended after the tax department refused to budge on a settlement offer much lower than the subscription cost it should have paid to fairly share NBR articles with 600 staff. Scott banned the tax department from taking future subscriptions to the publication and plans to lodge legal action with the District Court to recoup damages this year.
