Leading French newspapers, including Le Figaro, Les Echos, and Le Monde, have joined forces to sue social media platform X, formerly Twitter, over unpaid content.
The newspapers accuse X of violating “neighbouring rights” under French law, which requires social media platforms to pay for republishing news content.
The lawsuit, led by Le Figaro, alleges that X has failed to negotiate or provide commercial data on the income earned from their content. This decision follows a May 24 ruling by a Paris tribunal, which gave X two months to comply. However, X “has not yet complied” with this decision, demonstrating its intent to avoid legal obligations.
This lawsuit is the latest development in the ongoing debate over social media platforms’ responsibility to compensate news outlets for their content. The European directive adopted into French law requires platforms to pay neighbouring rights when republishing news content.
The newspapers involved in the lawsuit include:
– Le Figaro
– Les Echos
– Le Parisien
– Le Monde
– Telerama
– Courrier International
– Huffington Post
– Malesherbes Publications
– Le Nouvel Obs
Additionally, AFP (Agence France-Presse) has also joined the lawsuit.
