EU vs US: Europe's highest judicial authority has sided with Italian publishers, ruling that Meta must compensate news organizations. The court stated that social media companies are no different from other service providers and must negotiate licenses to lawfully use publishers' content. The question now is whether Meta will comply.
In a recent press release, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU/Curia) explained its decision in a case involving Meta and the Italian regulatory authority (C-797/23). The EU's highest judicial body stated that member states may grant local publishers the right to fair compensation, requiring online service providers such as Mark Zuckerberg's company to pay for the use of their content.
The C-797/23 case was initiated by Meta, which asked the CJEU to intervene after the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority approved a new policy on fair compensation for newspapers and other journalistic publishers. The policy allows publishers and service providers to reach individual agreements, after which AGCOM can step in to determine appropriate compensation if necessary.
Meta argued that AGCOM's policy would conflict with the EU's framework for publisher rights under the Digital Single Market Directive. However, according to the Court's ruling, fair compensation mechanisms are consistent with EU law, including the DSM framework. The compensation covers the authorization for platforms to use publishers' content on services such as Facebook, while publishers also retain the right to refuse such authorization or make their content available free of charge.
The CJEU said that AGCOM's requirements for negotiation and fair compensation strike a balanced approach between business freedom (in this case, Meta's) and intellectual property protection. Meta stated that it is reviewing the Court's decision and is seeking "constructive" cooperation with EU and Italian authorities, while the case is now being referred back to Italy's national courts.
According to the European Publishers Council, the trade organization representing leading media groups across Europe, the ruling represents a major win for online journalism. The EPC added that the decision can be seen as a rebuke of Meta and other major technology companies, which it claims have exploited their dominant market position to extract value from online content.
As highlighted by EPC Executive Director Angela Mills Wade, "quality journalism depends on the ability of publishers to recoup the investments required to produce trusted news and information."
While Meta has expressed a willingness to cooperate with regulators, it has a history of resisting similar policy changes. In Canada, for example, legislation requiring social media platforms to compensate publishers led Meta to restrict users from sharing links to Canadian news sites. The ban remains in place after more than three years.