A Spanish court ordered Meta to pay $550 million to the country's digital media for unfair competition.

A Spanish court has ruled that international technology company Meta must pay €479 million ($552 million) to Spanish digital media outlets for unfair competition and violation of European data protection laws, Reuters writes .

The Madrid Commercial Court said on November 20 that compensation due to 87 digital publishers and news outlets should be paid in connection with Meta's use of personal data for behavioral advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Meta gained a “significant competitive advantage” in the online advertising market in Spain thanks to the illegal processing of user data, the court said.

On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said a committee of the lower house of parliament would investigate possible privacy violations of Facebook and Instagram users.

Case details

More than 80 Spanish digital media organizations (the AMI association representing 87 publishers) have filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms (owner of Facebook and Instagram), accusing the company of unfair competition and “systematic and massive non-compliance” with European Union data protection rules (GDPR) for the period from May 25, 2018 to July 31, 2023. These include large media groups: Prisa (El País), Vocento (ABC), Unidad Editorial (El Mundo, Marca), etc.

The publishers claim that Meta used users' personal data without proper consent for targeted advertising. The plaintiffs allege that Meta repeatedly ignored the requirement to obtain user consent before using their personal data to create advertising profiles.

In July 2023, the EU's highest court ruled that the company could not force users in the 27-nation bloc to agree to personalized advertising - it required free consent. Meta responded by offering paid, ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram to European users. The plaintiffs claim that the use of personal data of users of Meta platforms, collected without their consent, allowed the company to offer advertising space due to an “illegally obtained competitive advantage”, which indirectly threatens the survival of Spanish media.