PARIS, France (AFP) — France’s competition watchdog Wednesday accused Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, of causing “serious and immediate harm” to French media by failing to compensate it for content it republishes.

It ordered the United States (US) tech giant to hold talks with key newspapers and news agencies on order to pay the so-called neighbouring rights that, under a 2019 European directive adopted into French law, are due when social media platforms republish news content.

Two groups called APIG and DVP that represent hundreds of media outlets — including AFP — had petitioned France’s Competition Authority after they said Meta failed to renew neighbouring rights contracts in early 2025 and late 2024 respectively.

The authority “considered that Meta’s practices were likely to constitute an abuse of a dominant position and caused serious and immediate harm to the press sector,” it said.

“Accordingly, (it)…  has ordered Meta to resume negotiations with DVP and APIG in good faith and, in particular, to provide the complainants with the information necessary to assess its remuneration offers within 15 days,” the French regulator said in a statement in English.

The issue of neighbouring rights has poisoned relations between the French press and big tech companies in recent years.

In 2021, agreements were signed with Meta, and in 2022 with Google. Some were framework agreements, and others individual arrangements.

But in 2024, matters again took a confrontational turn when the French Competition Authority fined Google 250 million euros ($265 million), accusing it of failing to meet some of its commitments made in 2022.

Tech giant Meta last month blasted an Australian draft law aiming to make tech giants compensate local publishers for sharing articles that drive traffic to their platforms.

Supporters of laws such as those being proposed in Australia argue that social media companies attract users with news stories and hoover up online advertising revenue that would otherwise go to struggling newsrooms.

Traditional media companies around the world have seen their business models upturned as readers increasingly consume their news on social media.