Meta Platforms has lost a legal challenge against an order by Italy’s communications regulator requiring the company to compensate publishers for using snippets of their news articles online.
The ruling was delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which sided with Italy’s telecoms watchdog, AGCOM, in a dispute over fair compensation for digital news content.
The case stemmed from Meta’s opposition to AGCOM’s authority to determine how much online platforms should pay publishers for displaying excerpts of their articles. Meta argued that such national measures conflicted with rights already defined under European Union copyright law.
However, the Luxembourg-based court ruled that a right to fair compensation for publishers is consistent with EU law, provided the payment serves as consideration for authorising the online use of their publications.
The dispute was referred to the European court by an Italian court seeking clarification on whether AGCOM had the power to regulate compensation between publishers and online platforms.
The judgment adds to growing tensions between publishers, technology companies and artificial intelligence developers over the use of copyrighted content online. Similar legal and regulatory battles involving companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have emerged globally over claims of unauthorised use of content for AI training.
The case is officially listed as C-797/23 Meta Platforms Ireland (Fair Compensation).
