The key facts

  • Ten Norwegian media outlets are demanding a temporary court injunction against Meta's new commercial terms until the case is heard on its merits
  • Meta moved the rules' entry into force from October 30 to November 20 after criticism from European publishers and antitrust authorities
  • Publishers argue that the only way to opt out of the new terms is to delete the professional account

Lawsuit in the Oslo court

A coalition of Norwegian media organizations has filed a lawsuit against Meta, arguing that the new commercial terms for professional accounts strip publishers of control over their journalism and allow their material to be used in AI products without consent. According to the ten media groups, the updated terms give Meta — the owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads — the right to collect their articles, photos and videos, including paywalled content. This was reported by Euronews.

The essence of the demands and the parties' positions

The plaintiffs, among them the state broadcaster NRK, the media groups Schibsted, Amedia, Polaris and Aller, as well as the news agency NTB, have turned to the Oslo District Court seeking a preliminary injunction to block the terms from taking effect until the case is heard on its merits. They argue that the new rules apply to all holders of professional accounts — media outlets, companies and retailers — and leave no way to opt out other than deleting the account. Critics call this an 'all or nothing' choice: either agree to the collection of material, potentially for AI training, or lose their presence on Facebook and Instagram.

Head of MBL: 'distorts competition'

Lene Eltvik Windfeld, head of the Norwegian Media Businesses' Association (MBL), said she fears companies could use these opportunities to legally secure rights to journalistic content. According to her, Meta is leveraging media groups' investments to develop AI services that directly compete with them, which is 'unacceptable and distorts competition'.

Delayed rollout and the broader context

Meta announced the change to its commercial terms on October 8 with an initial launch date of October 30, but after criticism from European publishers and antitrust authorities it postponed the rules' entry into force to November 20, explaining that it wanted to 'give more time to explain to partners what is changing and what is not'. The court case will test whether publishers can block the changes before they take effect.

Part of a wider conflict

The Oslo case reflects a broader dispute over the rights of publishers whose material appears on major technology and AI platforms. According to Euronews, since May of this year more than 340 local and national news sites, including The Guardian, The New York Times and USA Today, have blocked the Internet Archive's crawler to prevent data collection for training AI models. In June, the French antitrust authority warned Meta that its approach to negotiating content payments could 'seriously harm' the press. Separately, on October 14, MBL and NRK had earlier threatened to sue, accusing Meta of profiting from fraudulent advertising that used their brands to deceive users.