Elon Musk’s X sued by Europe’s richest man

French newspapers owned by Bernard Arnault insist the platform must pay for content shared by users

Several French media companies owned by billionaire Bernard Arnault have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s social media network X, accusing the platform of distributing their content without paying for it.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by Les Echos and Le Parisien, which are part of Arnault’s luxury conglomerate LVMH. The move is supported by Le Monde, Le Figaro, Telerama, Courrier International, Huffington Post, Malesherbes Publications and Le Nouvel Obs.

According to Forbes, Arnault is currently the richest person in Europe and the 5th richest in the world, with an estimated family net worth of $156 billion. Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX and has been an avid supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, holds the top spot globally with a net worth of $308 billion.

The French media outlets have accused X of violating so-called “neighboring rights”, which refer to royalties generated from broadcasting non-interactive digital services. Back in May, they, as well as Agence France-Presse, had asked a Paris court to compel X to provide relevant commercial data, and the judiciary backed the request.

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However, the newspapers said, as cited by the Daily Telegraph, that the network has “not…complied” with the ruling, “thus demonstrating its invariable desire to evade its legal obligations.” 

“The revenue from these rights… is a boost to the plurality, independence and quality of the media, which are essential for freedom of expression and the right to information in our democratic society,” they added.

While X has yet to comment on the litigation, its lawyer insisted in March that the site was not subject to neighboring rights because the media content is not published by the platform itself, but by users.  

“This is bizarre. They want us to pay *them* for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don’t!?” Musk asked in August 2023.