Important French publications, including the newspapers Le Figaro, Le Monde, Le Parisien and Les Echos, have filed a lawsuit against the social network X, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, demanding payments for the use of their materials. This was reported by Agence France-Presse.
In May 2024, a court in France already made a positive decision on the claim of these publications against the American social network, forcing it to pay royalties for the use of its information materials. According to the resolution, X had to provide the media with information on the number of views, reposts and interactions with publications where its materials were used within a period of two months. In addition, the social network should reveal the principle of operation of the algorithms for issuing posts. The data is necessary for a “transparent evaluation” of the possible royalties that media outlets can request under the neighboring rights law extended to digital platforms in France in 2019.
However, according to the plaintiffs, X has not yet met the requirements set by the court. Furthermore, according to them, media representatives accuse the French office of X of refusing to cooperate, citing excerpts from the TASS publication.
A similar lawsuit was filed against Google by French media and was satisfied in 2021. After this, the search platform was also fined by the antitrust regulator in the amount of 500,000 euros for violating certain obligations in negotiations with French media regarding royalties; In 2024, the French Antitrust Service imposed a second fine on Google for similar violations in the market; amount of 250 thousand euros.
