Meta vince contro l’AGCOM: niente contributo da versare all’Autorità
*by Fulvio Sarzana di S.Ippolito, Lawyer, Sarzana and Partners Law Firm. Studio Legale Sarzana e Associati.
In Italy, META won its first-instance battle against the administrative contribution to the functioning of the Authority that AGCOM, the Communications Regulatory Authority, had imposed on it in the copyright sector.
The Fourth Section of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court has recently accepted the appeal of the Californian Giant, disapplying Article 4, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree 177/2021, in the part in which it includes among the subjects obliged to pay the contribution also the "information society service providers, including media monitoring and press review companies and those operating in the video-on-demand sectornot established in Italy
The TAR ruled as follows: “Indeed, in the case in question the contested measure does not pertain to the substantive discipline of copyright – that is, to the copyright sector strictu sensu understood – but it introduces, in the sector in question, a self-financing mechanism for the Authority, only indirectly connected to the matter of copyright.
The obligation introduced by the legislator therefore goes beyond the scope of the exemption pursuant to Article 3, paragraph 3, of the Directive, strictly interpreted.
Meta wins against AGCOM: no to administrative fees on copyright
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