Norwegian media sue Meta and an Oslo court blocks its new terms

On October 28, 2026, the Oslo District Court barred Meta from applying its new commercial terms for Facebook and Instagram business accounts, at least until their legality has been settled for good. The order came a day after ten Norwegian publishing groups went to court.

The publishers fear the terms would force them to hand Meta their articles, photos and videos, paywalled ones included, so the company could build artificial intelligence products. Euronews reported the court action and the ruling.

The wording of the clause has changed along the way. According to Press Gazette, Meta removed the explicit reference to training its own products and rewrote the purpose as development, improvement, research and maintenance of advertising and business products. Publishers reply that this formula still covers generative AI services.

A Meta spokesperson maintains that the crawling rules apply to ads and business products. He adds that site owners can keep signaling their preferences.

The case matters because it tests whether a platform can make access to its business tools conditional on terms that publishers read as permission to use their content, paywalled material included, for AI development. For now, the Oslo court has stopped Meta from applying the terms while the question of their legality is decided.