Google , Meta , Spotify and Sony have taken Belgium to Europe's highest court, arguing that the country's copyright law forces platforms to pay creators far more than the EU had stipulated .
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The four tech giants have asked the European Union’s Court of Justice to intervene, claiming that Belgium has changed the payment structure for news, music and videos shared online. Belgium, supported by several EU governments, argues that the law simply ensures that publishers and artists get a fairer share. The court must decide whether Belgium has correctly implemented the 2019 EU copyright directive or whether it has rewritten it.
The directive was designed to help publishers and creators get more value from their work online. However, Belgium has introduced additional requirements, including mandatory negotiations, disclosure obligations and new mandatory payments for certain creators. Companies argue that these additions go beyond what EU lawmakers approved.
Google argues that the law upsets the balance established by the directive. The company recently faced a record €4.1 billion fine from the EU on appeal. Its lawyer told the court that Google Search already has more than 1,500 licensing agreements covering more than 5,500 press publications, and YouTube also compensates music labels and creators.
According to Google, Belgium’s system requires binding payment negotiations and requires sensitive business data before a platform can prove it used the content. These demands come from a variety of sectors, including plumbing trade associations, gaming websites, podcast operators and real estate listings. “This puts online service providers in a dilemma,” said lawyer Olivier Vrins.
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Meta presented a different argument, claiming that the Belgian law blurs the distinction between platforms that host content and those that create it. Facebook does not choose which stories appear; users do. “Otherwise, every online platform would essentially become a user of the content that its own users upload,” argued lawyer Benoit Van Asbroeck.
Spotify and Sony criticized another aspect of the law, which gives authors and performers a mandatory royalty right even after their work is licensed through labels and collecting societies. The two companies warned that this could lead to platforms paying twice for the same stream.
Belgium and its supporters, including France, Spain, Italy, Poland and Germany, argue that the tech giants are missing the point. They argue that creators must negotiate with companies with significantly more power, and without additional protections, intellectual property rights are largely ineffective in practice.
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The implications extend beyond Belgium, as the court will determine how much flexibility each member state has to enact stricter regulations than those set by Brussels. Attorney General Maciej Szpunar is expected to deliver his opinion on November 19, with a final ruling to follow. The outcome will affect content pricing for every publisher and platform in Europe.
