Bernard Arnault is suing Elon Musk's X for alleged unpaid content use

Europe’s richest person, Bernard Arnault, head of luxury conglomerate LVMH, has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) for allegedly using the content of his newspapers without compensation.

The lawsuit involves two of Arnault’s newspapers, Le Parisien and Les Echos, in addition to the other French daily newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde.

The publishers claim that X ignored a 2019 European Union directive requiring digital platforms to pay for news content. Under this directive, digital platforms are required to negotiate and compensate media publishers for the reuse of their content.

The lawsuit comes two months after the Paris court ordered X to provide commercial data to a coalition of French publishers including Télérama, Courrier International, Le Huffington Post, Malesherbes Publications and Le Nouvel Obs. These publishers have accused

The publishers’ claims highlight a pattern of non-compliance by X, unlike other major tech companies such as Google and Meta, both of which have entered into payment agreements with French publishers.

What we know

The legal battle pits two of the richest individuals in the world against each other. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person with a net worth of about $319 billion, now faces Arnault, whose fortune stands at $164 billion despite a recent decline of $43 billion, largely due to declining demand for luxury goods in China, a crucial market for LVMH. Meanwhile, Musk’s wealth has increased by almost $90 billion this year, thanks in part to the election victory of US Republican candidate Donald Trump, who Musk supported.

This lawsuit not only brings content rights issues to the fore, but also serves as an important test case for the enforcement of the EU’s Digital Content Compensation Directive. Although Google and Meta have complied with regulations, X’s resistance could lead to increased scrutiny from regulators in Europe.
If French publishers gain the upper hand, is compensated on global technology platforms.

The outcome of this case could reshape the landscape of digital content rights enforcement, signaling how European law could hold tech giants accountable for the use of intellectual property within an increasingly digital news ecosystem. As this legal showdown unfolds, its consequences are likely to extend beyond French borders and impact the way publishers worldwide negotiate with digital platforms over the use and compensation of content.