Prominent French newspapers, including Le Figaro, Le Monde, Le Parisien, Télérama, Courrier International, Le Huffington Post, Malesherbes Publications, L’Obs and Les Échos, have filed a lawsuit against the social media platform X and its parent company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk. The lawsuit accuses X of using news publications’ content without paying.
According to the publishers, despite a previous ruling in favour of them, X has been unwilling to negotiate fair compensation for the use of their news content on its platform.
The dispute first emerged in May 2024, when a Parisian judicial tribunal ordered X to provide data about its commercial revenues derived from news content shared on the platform, reports Le Monde.
This decision was intended to pave the way for calculating fair compensation for news outlets under ‘neighbouring rights,’ which provides exclusive rights to artists, and producers of any form of communication. However, X didn’t comply with the court’s ruling, compelling the news platforms to escalate the matter through additional legal channels.
On the other hand, in 2021, French publishers reached agreements with Meta and Google, which began paying for news content following intense negotiations. The issue of ‘neighbouring rights’ has been a contentious point between the French press and digital platforms.
The legal concept of ‘neighbouring rights,’ established by a 2019 European directive, mandates that digital platforms compensate media outlets when they republish or share their content.
The lawsuit reflects a growing trend in the news publishing industry: News platforms either litigate against social media or artificial intelligence companies or opt for profitable agreements with them.
For instance, OpenAI entered into agreements with Hearst, Conde Nast, The Atlantic, Vox Media, News Corp and Financial Times.
If the court finds X guilty of breaching the law, Elon Musk may have to pay a substantial fine and offer compensation to the affected newspapers.
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