The Italian antitrust authorities have launched an investigation into the American group Meta and Facebook Italy. It concerns the alleged abuse of Meta’s dominant position in its negotiations with the company responsible for copyright in Italy, SIAE, for a license to use music rights on its platforms.
Online platforms – such as Facebook and Instagram, which belong to the Zuckerberg group Meta – contract with the rights management companies in the individual countries. This sets out how music deposited with these companies may be used and how this use is reimbursed to the authors of the music.
SIAE represents songwriters, composers, lyricists and authors in Italy and in that capacity has signed a contract with Meta that expires in January 2023. Negotiations to renew this contract have so far been unsuccessful, leading to Meta muting the SIAE music catalog on its platforms.
Dependency exploited?
According to Italian antitrust authorities, Mark Zuckerberg’s company has suspended negotiations for a license to use music rights on its platforms, exploiting its economic dependence on SIAE.
Meta then also removed 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.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
