ROME (CelebrityAccess) — Anti-trust regulators in Italy announced plans to launch a probe of social media giant Meta over concerns that the company abused its dominant position in the internet world in negotitions over music rights.
The probe follows a recent breakdown between Meta and the Italian copyright society SIAE over talks to renew a contract for music rights and the subsequent removal from Meta’s platforms of music copyrights represented by the society.
According to the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, Meta could have interrupted the contract negotiations and failed to provide SIAE with necessary information as required by Italian law.
“Meta’s conduct not only could significantly hamper SIAE’s competitiveness on the affected markets, but it could also prevent the authors represented by SIAE – who are a significant share of all Italian authors – to reach consumers that more and more use social platforms. Meta’s conduct could also affect authors represented by other collecting societies but whose rights are co-managed by SIAE. Moreover, Meta’s conduct obstructing the access of SIAE’s musical content to Meta’s platforms could also impact negatively on the remuneration of musical works and of all other legal positions protected by copyright law. Those alleged abuse could also significantly limit consumers’ choice, who could be deprived of the chance of using musical works whose rights SIAE represents and that are a large share of Italy’s and international musical offer,” the AGCM said.
In a statement provided to Reuters, a spokespperson for Meta said: “We will fully cooperate with the inquiry from the Italian Competition Authority. Protecting the copyrights of songwriters and artists is an important priority for us.”
