A lawsuit has been filed against Meta in France, with the company being accused of economic “parasitism” due to its alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted material for training its AI models, according to a report by Reuters.

The lawsuit, filed in a Paris court by the National Publishing Union (SNE), the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), and the Society of People of Letters (SGDL), claims that Meta has been unlawfully training its AI models using their protected content without permission.

This case is believed to be the first of its kind against a major AI company in France. Meta is also facing similar litigation in the United States regarding the alleged use of unlicensed protected material to train its large language models, including Llama.

As reported by Reuters, Maia Bensimon, the general delegate of SNAC, stated at a press conference on Wednesday that Meta is guilty of “monumental looting” by using their content without permission. Additionally, Renaud Lefebvre, the director general of SNE, described the legal battle as a “David versus Goliath” fight.

Meta has been reached out to for comment on the matter.