Meta losses European court battle over Italian news publisher compensation

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) must comply with mandates set by Italy's telecoms watchdog, AGCOM, regarding "fair compensation" for news content.

The case, C-797/23 Meta Platforms Ireland (Fair compensation), reached the top court after Meta challenged AGCOM's authority to dictate the financial terms under which platforms use press articles.

Meta had argued that Italy's national measures overstepped the rights already established under broader EU copyright legislation.

However, the CJEU found that a right to remuneration is consistent with EU law, provided the payment is directly linked to the authorization of using publications online.

The decision effectively validates the power of individual EU member states to intervene when platforms and publishers fail to reach private commercial agreements.

The loss for Meta comes amid a broader wave of litigation and regulatory pressure on tech companies.

Beyond news snippets, giants like Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic are facing mounting legal challenges over the use of copyrighted material to train generative AI models.

Publishers argue that tech firms are profitizing their intellectual property without providing a commensurate share of the revenue, while tech companies maintain that "fair use" or existing licensing frameworks should apply.

By affirming AGCOM’s power to set compensation rates, the CJEU has potentially opened the door for other European regulators to take a more interventionist approach.

Meta, which has previously threatened to remove news content from its platforms in markets like Canada and Australia over similar "link tax" laws, now faces a reinforced legal landscape in Europe that mandates payment for the snippets that appear on Facebook and Instagram feeds.