On Wednesday, Italy’s competition watchdog said it had disclosed an investigation against the parent company of Facebook, Meta for allegedly abusing its dominant position during copyright negotiations with Italian music artists.
The Italian Competition Authority said it was investigating Meta’s alleged abuse of economic dependence on the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE), the public authority charged with protecting artists’ copyright in Italy.
The SIAE had a contract with Meta that expired in December 2022. Unsuccessful contract renewal talks led Meta to cut off negotiations and remove SIAE’s artists from all its platforms.
Mark Zuckerberg‘s company may have unduly interrupted negotiations for the stipulation of the license to use, on its platforms, music rights by abusing SIAE’s economic dependence.”
the watchdog said in a statement
It said it considered Meta had failed to provide the company with the necessary information to carry out the negotiations in full compliance with the principle of transparency and fairness.
Meta is accused of using its dominant position in the market by asking SIAE to accept an inadequate economic offer, but without providing the appropriate information to assess its actual fairness.”
the watchdog said.
The alleged unfair practices could control musical artists from “reaching the ever-widening category of users who enjoy social platforms,” it said, limiting consumer choice and adversely affecting competitive dynamics within the sector.
Meta said on Wednesday it was ready to work together to meet the demands of the Competition Authority.
Meta’s head of public policy in Italy, Angelo Mazzetti, told Italian news agency Ansa on Monday that SIAE had rejected any offer below 310 percent of its last license.
SIAE countered that any new license could not be compared to the one signed before Facebook became Meta, considerably expanding the social network’s scope.
Meta was called Facebook and did not deal with the metaverse, and its revenue and use of our directory were not comparable to those of today.”
Salvatore Nastasi-SIAE President, as quoted by Ansa.
