Double front open for Meta on the field of copyright. On the one hand, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in favor of Italy on the principle of fair compensation to publishers by online platforms; on the other hand, the largest scientific publishing house in the world, Elsevier, has joined the US class action that accuses Mark Zuckerberg’s giant of having used protected works to train the Llama AI.
The EU Court: fair compensation for publishers is legitimate
Member States may grant newspaper publishers the right to fair remuneration from online platforms that use their content. This was established by the Court of Justice of the EU in a ruling regarding an appeal by Meta against Agcom.
The tech giant had challenged before the TAR a decision of the Italian Authority which established the criteria for defining the right to fair remuneration for publishers for the online use of their publications, as well as a regime aimed at guaranteeing this remuneration. For European judges, Italian legislation is instead compatible with EU law.
Meta’s reaction: «Decision that confirms our principles»
Meta welcomes “the confirmation by the Court of Justice of the European Union that Article 15”, the specific right in favor of newspaper publishers for the online use of their publications by online platforms, allowing them in particular to authorize or prohibit their use, “constitutes an exclusive right which does not provide for any payment by providers when they do not use journalistic publications”.
This was declared by a Meta spokesperson, commenting on today’s ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU on fair compensation for publishers from platforms. “We will review the decision in full and collaborate constructively when the matter returns to the Italian courts,” he adds.
Elsevier in the class action against Meta for the Llama AI
On the US front, the largest international scientific publishing house, Elsevier, has joined the class action against Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, accused of having used scientific articles and other copyrighted works to train the Llama Artificial Intelligence model, which is a large language model like Chat-Gpt.
The news was reported on its website by Nature magazine, which underlines that the plaintiffs also include other publishing giants, including Hachette and Macmillan, as well as the well-known American writer Scott Turow.
The accusations: data from Common Crawl, LibGen and Sci-Hub
Prosecutors allege that Meta took advantage of data collected by Common Crawl, an organization that periodically crawls billions of web pages, creating a huge data archive. This archive probably also includes unauthorized copies of works protected by copyright.
The publishers also allege that Meta downloaded and shared protected works from sites such as LibGen, a vast digital library of books, scientific articles and academic manuals, and Sci-Hub, a pirate archive offering access to millions of scientific articles.
Meta’s defense: «It is a question of fair use»
Meta defends itself by arguing that training on copyrighted documents constitutes “fair use”, that is, an exception to copyright provided by US law. “AI is fueling revolutionary innovations,” a spokesperson said, “and the courts have rightly ruled that training it on copyrighted material can be considered fair use.”
The 2025 sentences open a window of opportunity for publishers
So far, US courts have mostly ruled in favor of AI companies on this issue. However, in two landmark rulings in 2025, judges said that objections to fair use could be raised if copyright holders could demonstrate that sales of their products were harmed.
Fieg: EU Court good on fair remuneration legitimacy
Italian newspaper publishers express “great satisfaction” with the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union which recognized the compatibility with European law of the Italian legislation on the fair remuneration of publishers for the online use of journalistic publications.
What the EU Court of Justice ruled on the Meta-Agcom appeal
In the proceedings raised by Meta against the Agcom Regulation, and in which the FIEG also intervened, the European Court clarified that the right recognized to publishers constitutes a legitimate economic consideration for the authorization to use the publications online. The judges also confirmed the legitimacy of the tools provided for by Italian legislation – including the obligations of negotiation, transparency and correctness in negotiations – aimed at guaranteeing a balance between the rights of publishers and the freedom of enterprise of digital platforms.
Riffeser Monti (FIEG): «An essential principle recognized»
«The decision of the European Court of Justice confirms the validity of the path undertaken by Italy to protect professional information in the digital ecosystem», declared the President of Fieg, Andrea Riffeser Monti. «An essential principle is recognized, for which we have been fighting for years: editorial content has an economic and democratic value that cannot be ignored or used without fair remuneration».
«This is a ruling that strengthens the role of quality information and the investments made daily by publishers to guarantee citizens reliable, pluralistic and professional information», added the FIEG President.
The hope: to unblock negotiations between publishers and platforms
«The hope is that the principles affirmed by the Court will now find full and concrete application, unblocking the pending negotiations and favoring transparent and balanced relations between publishers and digital platforms, in the common interest of the quality of information and European democracy».