The French news agency AFP launched a copyright case in France on Wednesday against social media giant Twitter, recently rebranded X, due to a global struggle to get tech firms to pay for news. Media groups have long argued that their stories and images bring value to platforms like X, Facebook, and Google, meaning they should get a slice of the profits. That push was boosted in 2019 when the European Union passed a law requiring that large online platforms open talks with publishers seeking remuneration. However, AFP says X has been evident in its refusal to engage, and the news agency wants a Paris court to force it to submit data so it can calculate what it should be paid.

The lawsuit against X is a significant test of the new European law, and it comes as the billionaire entrepreneur is preparing to launch his next project, a search engine called Threads, aimed at linking news articles with related content. The case against X is still being determined for AFP, which operates under old statutes that guarantee its independence from government and private interference. Despite those protections, the CEO has wide-ranging powers during strategic reevaluation, and the news agency has never before faced such a thorny legal battle.

AFP has sued X for not agreeing to discuss potential payment for distributing its content. The news agency said it was suing because of French copyright rules dubbed “neighboring rights” that allow it to seek compensation from digital platforms that share its content. The news agency has pressed for years to have those rules enforced, and France became the first EU country to pass them into national law in 2019.

In its suit, AFP accuses X of failing to honor “neighboring rights” by refusing to discuss its potential financial obligations. The company has faced several other copyright suits over its policies, including a lawsuit by music publishers over a new feature called “threads.”

One of the plaintiffs in that case, the union Sindicato dos jornalistas (SJ), warned that AFP’s chosen defense, in this case, could lead to a “scorched-earth policy” against online platforms that threatens the jobs of millions of journalists across Europe. The union said the news agency’s argument that stories and photos that merely report on daily events do not qualify for protection under copyright law would undermine all European copyright protections.

A lawyer for X waited to return a message seeking comment. The lawsuit against AFP is the latest development in a tumultuous year for X, battered by criticism of its handling of hate speech and false information. The tech firm has been accused of trying to silence critics by censoring their accounts and removing them from the site, and it has also been sued over alleged privacy violations by employees. Earlier this week, the company blocked users of its flagship product in Canada from seeing posts by some news organizations.