In December 2023, the Information Media Association (AMI), representing 83 Spanish media outlets, filed a lawsuit against Meta – owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – for massive and systematic non-compliance with European data protection regulations in the period between May 25, 2018 and July 31, 2023.
Now, the company has been ordered to pay 542 million euros to the media.
This has been established by the Commercial Court No. 15 of Madrid in a ruling handed down on November 19. The lawsuit filed, which alleged that Meta’s behavioral advertising improperly used protected personal data of Facebook and Instagram users, has been partially upheld, thus granting itself a significant competitive advantage over the legal advertising model of the Spanish media.
The ruling considers that Meta violated the General Data Protection Regulation
In this way, the resolution establishes that Meta violated the legislation when selling personalized online advertising. The regulations require specific consent from users to carry out commercial activity, but AMI media considers that the company did not obtain that permission between 2018 and 2023, which is the period contemplated in the lawsuit.
For this reason, Meta has been convicted of unfair competition arising from the violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It must pay 479 million euros to 87 media outlets integrated into AMI – plus 60 million for interest – as well as compensate the Europa Press Group with more than 2.5 million euros and Radio Blanca with more than 14,000 euros.
Initially, AMI demanded 550 million euros from the firm, a figure to which the sentence has come close.
In a statement, the Association points out that the compensation represents the profits lost due to Meta’s illicit competitive advantage. They have been calculated, as explained, based on the Study on the conditions of competition in the online advertising sector in Spain prepared by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC).
As AMI points out in a statement, throughout the process Meta refused to provide operating accounts in the Spanish market. The court applied the rules of burden of proof and validated the data presented by the association, concluding that Meta obtained more than 5,281 million euros in Spain with its advertising business between May 25, 2018 and August 1, 2023.
Furthermore, the association says that the judge presumes that the real figure could be even higher, since, if it were lower, the company would have had incentives to prove it.
Although the decision is not yet final, since it could be appealed by Meta, the Information Media Association describes it as “historic judicial victory“and they consider that it could have a strong impact on the Spanish and European advertising ecosystem. What’s more, in France, for example, similar lawsuits are already being processed.
They emphasize that the illegitimate processing of user data by Meta generated a structural imbalance in the market, reducing the income from display advertising of Spanish digital media. And, consequently, they point out that the case opens a broader reflection on the balance between technological innovation, use of personal data and fair competition.
