France's watchdog accuses Meta of harming French media over content payments

FILE - Visitors take photos at a sign outside Meta headquarters March 26, 2026, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

France's competition watchdog Wednesday accused Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, of causing "serious and immediate harm" to French media by failing to compensate it for content it republishes.

It ordered the US tech giant to hold talks with key newspapers and news agencies to pay the so-called neighbouring rights that, under a 2019 European directive adopted into French law, are due when social media platforms republish news content.

Two groups called APIG and DVP - that represent hundreds of media outlets, including AFP - had petitioned France's Competition Authority after they said Meta failed to renew neighbouring rights contracts in early 2025 and late 2024 respectively.

The authority "considered that Meta's practices were likely to constitute an abuse of a dominant position and caused serious and immediate harm to the press sector," it said.

The issue of neighbouring rights has poisoned relations between the French press and big tech companies in recent years.

In 2021, agreements were signed with Meta, and in 2022 with Google.

Some were framework agreements, and others individual arrangements.

But in 2024, the French Competition Authority fined Google ₹250 million, accusing it of failing to meet some of its commitments.

Meta last month blasted an Australian draft law aiming to make tech giants compensate local publishers for sharing articles that drive traffic to their platforms.