A Spanish court has ordered Meta to pay over $550 million to Spanish digital media outlets. This is due to the use of personal data for behavioral advertising and a violation of EU data protection rules.
A Spanish court has ordered Facebook owner Meta (META.O) to pay 479 million euros ($552 million) to Spanish digital media channels for unfair competition and violations of European Union data protection rules, UNN reports with reference to Reuters.
Details
A Madrid commercial court said on Thursday that the compensation, to be paid to 87 digital press publishers and news agencies, relates to Meta's use of personal data for behavioral advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
It said the US tech giant had gained a "significant competitive advantage" in Spain's online advertising market by illegally processing user data.
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Addendum
The court said Meta had violated the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, and thus also violated Spanish antitrust law.
The complaint filed by Spanish media concerned Meta's change in the legal basis for processing personal data after the GDPR came into force in May 2018.
To justify behavioral advertising, Meta switched from user consent to "necessity for contract performance." Regulators later deemed this basis inadequate.
In August 2023, Meta reverted to consent as its legal basis. The judge estimated that Meta had generated at least 5.3 billion euros in advertising revenue during these five years and considered the entire amount to have been obtained in violation of the GDPR.
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A similar lawsuit is currently pending in France.
The publication notes that this decision, which can be appealed, is the latest in a series of fines Meta has faced in Europe.
Last year, the European Commission fined Meta nearly 800 million euros for tying its online classifieds service Facebook Marketplace to its Facebook social network and for imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classifieds service providers.
Spain's left-wing government has also focused on Meta's alleged privacy violations. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Wednesday that a lower house parliamentary committee would investigate Meta's alleged use of a hidden mechanism to track the web activity of Android device users. Meta said it would cooperate with Spanish officials on the matter.
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