Denmark has taken a side in one of the quieter but more consequential legal battles over how the internet pays for journalism. The Danish government has filed a written intervention at the Court of Justice of the European Union, backing Belgium in a case brought by a group of technology companies that dispute how Belgium enforces the press publishers’ right, according to Reuters.
It is the same right at the centre of a run of recent European rulings, including the one in which Meta lost an Italian publisher-pay case at the EU’s top court.
The dispute turns on Article 15 of the 2019 Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, the provision that gave press publishers a right to be paid when platforms reuse their content.
Belgium’s way of implementing that right is what the platforms are challenging, arguing that the national rules go beyond what EU law permits. Denmark, in intervening, is arguing the opposite.
The companies bringing the case are not minor players. Reuters reports that the challenge was filed against the Belgian government in 2023 by a group including Streamz, Google, Meta, Spotify, and Sony, which contend that Belgium’s implementation of the directive undermines rather than applies EU copyright law. The oral hearing is set for 6 and 7 July, and Denmark intends to take part rather than simply file on paper.
