ANTITRUST – Italian Competition Authority’s interim decision on the Meta-SIAE negotiations confirmed by court

Newsletter n. 90 – November 2023

ANTITRUST

Italian Competition Authority’s interim decision on the Meta-SIAE negotiations confirmed by court

On 30 October 2023, the Italian Administrative Court of First Instance (“TAR Lazio”) in Decision No. 16069 upheld the interim measures adopted by the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) in the investigative proceedings for the alleged abuse of economic dependence by Meta Platforms Inc. (“Meta”) towards the Italian Authors’ and Publishers’ Association (“SIAE”). With these measures, the ICA had ordered Meta to immediately resume negotiations with SIAE to ensure protected music content would be made available on the platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, in a timely manner and for as long as necessary for the conclusion of negotiations. The TAR Lazio confirmed the ICA’s intervention, highlighting that the negotiations for the renewal of the agreements would have suffered an impasse that would have caused serious harm not only to SIAE which, in addition to economic loss, would have risked losing authors to other collective managers, but also to the artists it protects, who would not have been able to disseminate their content to users of the social networks owned by Meta.