The Union of Open Commercial Televisions (UTECA) and the Spanish Association of Commercial Broadcasting (AERC) have filed a joint lawsuit against Goal for unfair competition. Private radio and television stations consider that the company has obtained a illicit competitive advantage in the segmented and personalized online advertising market.

They allege that Meta has incurred the continued non-compliance with the European Data Protection Regulationat least in the period between May 25, 2018, when it came into force, and October 31, 2023. Thus, it would also have failed to comply with resolutions issued by the competent European authorities.

“Meta has illegally acquired an unfair competitive advantage that has allowed it to increase its market share in a key advertising modality in the online advertising ecosystem“, the organizations express in a statement. “If Instagram and Facebook had obtained prior consent from citizens for their advertising profiling, their database and their corresponding ability to offer personalized and segmented advertising would have been significantly reduced.”.

As they point out in the statement, UTECA and AERC estimate the economic damage of Meta’s non-compliance with data protection regulations at more than 160 million euroson the date of presentation of the claim. They consider that it is the figure corresponding to the amount not received by the plaintiffs due to the company’s illegal actions.

Furthermore, they explain that they reserve the possibility of extending the period subject of the lawsuit if the European authorities confirm that Meta is illegally collecting user consent since November 2023.

The lawsuit from UTECA and AERC is added to the one filed in December of last year by the Information Media Association (AMI) for the massive and systematic breach of European data protection regulations in the period between May 25, 2018 and July 31, 2023.

This association demands 550 million euros from the firm since they consider that the technology company’s behavior means that 100% of its income derived from the sale of segmented advertising has been obtained illegitimately, which has given it a dominant position in the advertising market.