European Union | France Orders Meta to Resume Press Rights Talks; Lacoste Wins Interim Measures Against Shein

On July 21, 2026, the European IP Helpdesk reported two significant French developments in intellectual property enforcement: interim measures ordered against Meta in the press publishers' neighbouring rights dispute, and EU-wide interim relief secured by Lacoste against the Shein platform.

On July 8, 2026, the French Competition Authority adopted Decisions 26-MC-01 and 26-MC-02 in proceedings involving Meta Platforms, Inc. and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, following complaints from the Societe des droits voisins de la presse (DVP) and the Alliance de la presse d'information generale (APIG). The dispute concerns the neighbouring right granted to press publishers under Article 15 of Directive (EU) 2019/790, transposed into French law in July 2019. Meta's previous remuneration agreements with APIG and DVP expired at the end of 2024 and January 2025 respectively, and a new round of negotiations in 2024 failed over the amount of remuneration, the uses covered, and which Meta services should be included.

At this preliminary stage, the Authority considered that Meta's practices — including allegedly imposing its own remuneration calculation method, withholding information needed to assess its proposals, and excluding most of its news-distributing services from the talks — could amount to unfair trading conditions and circumvention of the French neighbouring rights rules. It also noted Meta's likely dominant position in personal social networking services. The Authority ordered Meta to resume negotiations in good faith on transparent, objective and non-discriminatory criteria, to provide the required information within 15 days, to maintain current content display conditions during the talks, and to file regular compliance reports. The measures remain in force until a decision on the merits; no interim remuneration amount was set.

In the second case, on July 9, 2026, the Paris Judicial Court issued an interim order in proceedings brought by Lacoste S.A. against companies operating the Shein platform over clothing, jewellery and fashion accessories bearing crocodile images allegedly resembling Lacoste's renowned logo. The case-management judge of the court's IP-specialized Third Civil Chamber found a clear risk of consumer confusion and deemed imitation-based trade mark infringement likely, noting the products had been marketed despite an earlier interim order of April 3, 2025.

The court prohibited the Shein companies from marketing products bearing a crocodile logo anywhere in the European Union during the proceedings, ordered a provisional payment of EUR 110,000 towards any eventual damages, and required Shein to publish the decision on its website homepage and in its applications for one month. Shein said the order concerned only the interim stage and that it had removed the products after being notified; the substantive proceedings are ongoing.

Original Link: https://intellectual-property-helpdesk.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/france-orders-meta-resume-press-rights-talks-and-grants-lacoste-interim-measures-against-shein-2026-07-21_en