France - SNE, SNAC & SGDL v Meta Platforms Inc., 6 March 2025

Claimants:

• Syndicat national de l’édition (‘SNE’ – National Union of Publishers)
• Syndicat national des auteurs et des compositeurs (‘SNAC’ – National Union of Authors and Composers)
• Société des Gens de Lettres (‘SGDL’ – Society of Writers) 

The above associations defend the professional interests of their members, i.e. publishers and authors (respectively). 

Defendant: Meta Platforms Inc.

Copyright infringement and economic parasitism. 

This is the first major AI-related lawsuit filed in France against a tech company for the alleged unauthorised use of copyrighted works for the training of generative AI model.

The case is pending before the TJP. 

The statement of claim has not been made publicly available. The information included in this case summary is based on the claimants’ joint press release as well as their statements to the press. 

Meta has not publicly responded to the lawsuit.

The claimants brought a claim against Meta in March 2025. 

The claimants allege that Meta would have unlawfully used copyright protected works (i.e. French books) of their members (i.e. authors and publishers) without authorisation to train Meta’s generative AI model “Llama”.

The claimants seek the following remedies:

• Recognition of copyright infringement and economic parasitism.
• Withdrawal of the protected works from the datasets used for the training of the “Llama” AI model.
• Financial compensation for the concerned authors for the use of their works. No estimate of the damages has been disclosed by the claimants at this stage of the proceedings.

The claimants argue that Meta is liable for:

• Copyright infringement, for allegedly violating the exclusive rights of authors and publishers to authorise the use of their works, in violation of the French Intellectual Property Code.
• Economic parasitism, for allegedly taking undue advantage of the efforts or investments of the authors and publishers, in violation of the French Civil Code.