Europe’s wealthiest individual, Bernard Arnault, head of luxury conglomerate LVMH, has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) for allegedly using his newspapers’ content without compensation.
The lawsuit involves two of Arnault’s newspapers, Le Parisien and Les Echos, alongside other French dailies Le Figaro and Le Monde.
The publishers claim that X has disregarded a 2019 European Union directive mandating digital platforms to pay for news content. Under this directive, digital platforms are required to negotiate and compensate media publishers for reusing their content.
The lawsuit comes two months after the Paris judicial court mandated X to provide commercial data to a coalition of French publishers, including Télérama, Courrier International, Le Huffington Post, Malesherbes Publications, and Le Nouvel Obs. These publishers have accused X of deliberately refusing to comply with the directive, asserting that X “has not…complied” and has shown an “invariable desire to evade its legal obligations.”
The publishers’ claims highlight a pattern of non-compliance by X, contrasting it with other major tech firms like Google and Meta, both of which have entered payment agreements with French publishers.
What we know
The legal battle pits two of the world’s wealthiest individuals against one another. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person with a net worth of approximately $319 billion, now faces Arnault, whose fortune stands at $164 billion despite a recent decline of $43 billion, largely due to slowing demand for luxury goods in China, a critical market for LVMH. Meanwhile, Musk’s wealth has surged by nearly $90 billion this year, partly driven by the election victory of U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump, whom Musk supported.
- This lawsuit not only brings issues of content rights to the fore but also serves as a significant test case for enforcing the EU’s directive on digital content compensation. While Google and Meta have adhered to the regulations, X’s resistance could lead to intensified regulatory scrutiny within Europe.
- If the French publishers prevail, X may face broader obligations to comply with similar content payment rules across the EU, setting a precedent that could affect how media content is compensated on global tech platforms.
The outcome of this case could reshape the landscape of digital content rights enforcement, signaling how European law might hold tech giants accountable for intellectual property use within an increasingly digital news ecosystem. As this legal showdown unfolds, its implications are likely to extend beyond French borders, affecting how publishers globally negotiate with digital platforms over content use and remuneration.