Commission Starts Legal Action Against 23 EU Countries Over Copyright Rules

Commission Starts Legal Action Against 23 EU Countries Over Copyright Rules
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels on May 5, 2021. Yves Herman/Reuters
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BRUSSELS—France, Spain, Italy, and 20 other EU countries may be taken to court for their tardiness in enacting landmark EU copyright rules into national law, the European Commission said on Monday as it asked the group to explain the delays.

The copyright rules, adopted two years ago, aim to ensure a level playing field between the European Union’s trillion-euro creative industries and online platforms such as Google, owned by Alphabet, and Facebook.