The Italian antitrust authorities have launched an investigation into the US group Meta and Facebook Italy. It is about an alleged abuse of Meta’s position of power in its negotiations with the company responsible for copyright in Italy, SIAE, about a license to use music rights on its platforms.
Online platforms conclude contracts with the rights collecting societies in the individual countries. This stipulates how music deposited with these companies may be used and how this use is remunerated to the authors of the music.
Contract extension so far unsuccessful
SIAE represents songwriters, composers, lyricists and authors in Italy and in this capacity has signed a contract with Meta that expired in January 2023. Negotiations to renew this contract have so far been unsuccessful, leading to Meta muting the SIAE music catalog on its platforms.
According to Italy’s antitrust authorities, Mark Zuckerberg’s company suspended negotiations for a license to use music rights on its platforms, thereby exploiting its economic dependence on SIAE.
Meta then also removed the music content protected by SIAE from its social platforms and failed to provide the company with the necessary information to conduct the negotiations in full compliance with the principle of transparency and fairness.
