France orders Meta to resume talks with publishers over unpaid content fees.

France’s competition authority on Wednesday ordered Meta Platforms to present a payment plan and resume talks with French media groups seeking a year of unpaid fees for the use of their content online.

According to the authority, Meta likely abused its dominant position. The Facebook owner must provide details of its payment plan within 15 days.

The French complaint was filed by media associations DVP and APIG. It alleged that Meta attempted to impose its own method for calculating fees for the reuse of content on its services, while refusing to provide the information needed to evaluate the remuneration.

In a statement, Meta said it disagreed with the competition authority’s decisions but would engage with the process.

We remain committed to reaching a fair deal with DVP and APIG and we hope these decisions will mean the publishers now engage in good faith, the company said in an emailed statement.

Media rights group DVP, which includes the newspapers Le Monde and Les Echos, said it was satisfied with the decision and welcomed the renewed talks.

The case is part of a growing number of disputes between publishers and technology companies over the use of content on social media or for AI training, which have led to litigation.

France has sought to strictly enforce EU rules, resulting in large fines in recent years for technology companies, particularly Alphabet’s Google.