Several French publishing associations filed a joint legal complaint on Wednesday against Meta for its alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted work to train its generative artificial intelligence, contrary to the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act.
The National Publishing Union (SNE), the Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL) and the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC) filed a complaint to be heard before the Paris Judicial Court. In a joint press release, the SNE said that it is taking action against Meta for its non-compliance with the EU AI Act, which entered into force in August 2024.
President of the SNE, Vincent Montagne, said that through this summons, the associations wished to act on the basis of fundamental principles. He sustains that the creation of an AI market should not be detrimental to the cultural sector. The organizations hope for an outcome resulting in the removal of data directories created without authorization and used to train AI systems. They also seek greater protections for authors and creators, and compensation for creators, authors and editors whose work is used in the training of generative AI models.
The AI Act stipulates that generative AI must “comply with the transparency requirements and EU copyright law” by disclosing whether the content was AI-generated. Moreover, the generative AI must have a model designed to prevent the generation of “illegal content” and publish “summaries of copyrighted data used for training”. Therefore, Meta may be in direct breach of this requirement.
While the UK does not fall under the EU AI Act, in 2024 the UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology raised the need for clarification regarding copyright laws and their application to AI training models. In February 2025, international organizations presented a culture and innovation charter at the Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence, calling for AI development to coincide with copyright laws and other rights relevant to arts, cultural and creative sectors. In Europe, Meta is recently facing other complaints by organizations in relation to their use of advertising practices.