Meta must pay fair compensation to GEDI

The GEDI group has scored another victory against US Big Tech companies that publish editorial content on online platforms. After Microsoft , it's Meta's turn to pay fair compensation for articles published on Facebook. The Menlo Park-based company had requested a suspension of the regulation, approved in early 2023, but lost its appeal .

Compensation established by AGCOM

In early November 2021 , Legislative Decree no. 177 (effective December 12, 2021) was approved , transposing EU Directive 2019/790 on copyright . The Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) subsequently approved the regulation ( resolution 3/23/CONS ) establishing the criteria for calculating the fair compensation to be paid to publishers for content published by online platforms.

The aforementioned regulation provides for freedom of negotiation between the parties. Having failed to reach an agreement, Meta and GEDI requested intervention from AGCOM. The authority examined the financial proposals, highlighting that none of them complied with Article 4 of the regulation. It therefore determined the fair compensation based on the difference between the advertising revenue earned by Meta from the online use of GEDI's publications and the revenue earned by GEDI from the redirected traffic generated on its website by the publications used by Meta.

A rate of up to 70% was applied to the resulting (unknown) value (the exact rate is unknown). To determine the calculation basis, Meta's business model and the operating mechanisms of its services were considered, defining the scope within which the fair compensation must be calculated.

The rate was instead determined based on the criteria listed in Article 4 of the regulation (in decreasing order of importance). The resolution was approved with Commissioner Elisa Giomi voting against, as she almost always disagrees with the decisions of the authority's board.