By Foo Yun Chee
LUXEMBOURG, May 12 (Reuters) – Meta Platforms on Tuesday lost its fight against an Italian regulatory order that it should compensate publishers for using snippets of their news articles after Europe’s top court sided with the Italian telecoms watchdog.
The case underscores the ongoing copyright battle between publishers and creators and tech companies over the use of newspaper articles or authors’ work for AI training that have triggered litigation against companies including Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic for infringement.
“The Court finds that a right to fair compensation for publishers is consistent with EU law, provided that that remuneration constitutes consideration for authorising their publications to be used online,” said the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
The case came before the Court after Meta challenged the Italian communications authority AGCOM’s power to set the compensation that online platforms should pay for using press articles.
Meta argued that such national measures are incompatible with rights already granted to publishers under EU copyright legislation. An Italian court subsequently sought guidance from the CJEU.
“We will review the decision in full and engage constructively as the matter returns to the Italian courts,” said a Meta company spokesperson.
The case is C-797/23 Meta Platforms Ireland (Fair compensation).
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
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