Siae-Meta, licence extended by 4 months (but the social goes to the Council of State)
New transitional agreement on the possibility of using songs on Instagram and Facebook. However, the administrative law dispute remains open
2' min read
2' min read
As the 'holy week' of Sanremo approaches and the Universal Music-TikTok war breaks out, there is still a truce between Meta and Siae in the negotiations for the use of Italian repertoire managed by the Società autori ed editori in Instagram stories and Facebook reels. The previous transitional agreement expired on 31 January and so the parties, who still haven't come to an agreement, have taken another four months to continue the confrontation without taking down the songs from Menlo Park's social media, according to Sole 24 Ore. This is no small detail, considering that we are on the eve of the Italian Song Festival and social media are now an established strategy for promoting new songs.
Meta, however, has not given up challenging in the Council of State the judgement of the Tar rejecting its two appeals against the Antitrust decision that forced it to go back to the table with Siae. The dispute had opened in March 2023, when Mark Zuckerberg's company, the holding company that owns Facebook and Instagram as well as WhatsApp, had announced that it had not reached an agreement with Siae for the renewal of the copyright licence. A communication to the 'market' (read users) that carried with it the decision to remove or mute, within the next 48 hours, content with traces of Siae's repertoire inside (most of it, to be clear, considering that Siae, as a former monopolist, is the market leader collecting society in Italy).
An operation not without objective difficulties, if it is true that in the first days songs not managed by Siae but by other collecting societies, such as Soundreef, ended up being affected by the ban. The querelle came to the attention of the Culture Commission of the Italian Parliament, before the Antitrust Authority opened an investigation against Meta for abuse of economic dependence to the detriment of Siae and forced it to sit down at the table again. Ten months later, the result of the negotiation is still nailed down. So it goes on with extra time.
