THEAntitrust back to the charge on lack of agreement between Meta and Siae. The Competition and Market Authority has tax to the company of Mark Zuckerberg la resumption of negotiations with SIAE to restore the availability of music content on your social networks, Instagram and Facebook. The whole subject to authorization by the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers. The Authority has decided to take precautionary measures "for an alleged abuse of economic dependence by Mark Zuckerberg's group, which will also have to provide all the necessary information in the context of the resumption of negotiations" yes reads in the AGCM note.
Antitrust: resume negotiations in good faith
Meta must resume negotiations “maintaining a behavior inspired by the canons of good faith and correctness and provides all the necessary information to allow SIAE to restore balance in the commercial relationship with Meta” explains the Authority.
In case of disagreement between the parties, regarding the quantity and quality of the information to be provided by Meta, the Agcm declared that “it will appoint a trustee to identify them. The trustee must be a third party, independent and possess adequate technical expertise."
Antitrust: decision following the investigation against Meta
The decision follows the investigation started on 4 April against the parent company of Facebook and Instagram to ascertain a hypothetical abuse of economic dependence in the negotiation with Siae of the stipulation of the license to use the music on one's own platforms. According to the Agcm there was "an excessive imbalance between rights and obligations". After the presentation of the written briefs and the hearing of the parties, the Authority considered that the conditions exist for adopting these precautionary measures.
The Antitrust accusations against Meta
The Antitrust has identified the economic dependence of Siae on Meta on the basis of the presumption established, for digital platforms, byarticle 9 of the law n. 192 of 1998, emphasizing how in this case the evaluation criteria must be different from those usually used for other traditional economic sectors. Meta, in this context, appears to have a “abusive behavior and such as to cause serious and irreparable damage to the competitive dynamics in the markets related to copyright management, affecting all the subjects that make up the supply chain (authors, subjects who contribute to the creation of the work and protected by copyright law, collecting societies that protect these rights, end users)" is the accusation made by Agcm to the society.
The Authority had criticized Meta's choice of having unduly interrupted the negotiations for the renewal of the expired contract, eliminating the musical contents protected by Siae from its social platforms and, at the same time, not providing the company with the "information necessary to carry out the negotiations" in full compliance with the principle of transparency ed equity. In practice, according to the Agcm, Meta "played dirty" in the contract renewal negotiations deleting songs Italian from Instagram and Facebook, so that they were no longer usable by users.
Nastasi, Siae: new page in the history of the relationship between Meta and national copyright
Satisfied of the decision the president of Siae, Except Nastasi: “I thank the Agcm for fully accepting our arguments. From day one we have been convinced of the goodness of our reasons in defense of Italian authors and publishers, always based on fairness and transparency, as also required by the European Directive. As soon as we want return to sit at the negotiating table on an equal footing, having from the giant Meta all the necessary information to allow us to restore balance in the entire commercial relationship. In the meantime, we expect the immediate restoration of the contents protected by Siae on the social Metas. Today opens today one new page in the history of reports between this great technological platform and national copyright”.
Comments on the Antitrust decision also came from the Democratic Party. Dem members of the culture commission in the House they underline that “it is the unilateral decision taken by Meta is unacceptable and harmful. Need close a deal which takes into account the transparent and shared assessment of the effective value of the repertoire. Meta may have abused the contractual imbalance from which you benefit, asking SIAE to accept an inadequate economic offer, without providing the appropriate information to evaluate its actual congruity. Now close a fair deal that protects consumers, authors and publishers in the full interest of the growing music market in Italy".
