The Commercial Court number 15 of Madrid has sentenced Meta to pay 542 million euros to 87 Spanish media outlets, considering that the company incurred unfair competition in the management of personal data used for digital advertising. The resolution, signed by Judge Teodoro Ladrón Roda, came after the lawsuit that the Information Media Association (AMI) filed two years ago against the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, according to the newspaper El País.
A ruling detailing financial responsibility
The ruling establishes different compensatory items: 479 million for the newspapers and companies linked to advertising exploitation; 60 million in interest; 2.5 million for Europa Press plus 328,000 euros in interest; and more than 14,000 euros allocated to Radio Blanca.
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The magistrate has concluded that Meta obtained a “competitive advantage” by “using the data of millions of users on a legal basis that did not allow this use of data, and that makes the data processing carried out by Meta illegal” for the sale of personalized advertising. The judge considers this advantageous position – “significant due to the enormous volume of the database of Meta users in Spain” – “can never” be matched by the media that also depend on digital advertising in display format.
The ruling is considered a relevant precedent that could have an impact at the European level, since in countries like France there is similar litigation promoted by fifty newspapers for advertising practices based on the massive use of personal data against this same company.
GDPR violation
The resolution, dated November 19, subject to appeal before the Provincial Court of Madrid within a period of 20 business days, has analyzed the use of personal data for personalized advertising between May 2018 – when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force – and July 2023, when AMI formalized the lawsuit.
The media reported that Meta did not request the explicit consent required by European regulations to process personal information for commercial purposes. The initial document estimated the damage at 551 million, an amount close to that finally recognized. The judge stressed that “the advantage is that Meta, through its Instagram and Facebook services, has a large amount of data on each of its active users.”
Repeated violations of Meta and media sustainability
In his argument, Ladrón Roda has described the behavior of the technology company – which operates in Europe from Ireland – in the following way: “Meta has not failed to use the appropriate technology to obtain many good profiles to carry out behavioral advertising. It has failed in the way of obtaining and using personal data because it has failed to comply with the RGPD in the relevant period. It is not worth saying that an excess of regulations stifles its business model (…) It is Meta that has to adapt to the RGPD and not the RGPD. that must be adapted to Meta. A market of 450 million inhabitants in the EU is well worth that effort.”
Faced with this action, the Spanish newspapers, grouped in AMI, went to court at the end of 2023 accusing Meta of “obtaining in a global, absolute, systematic and unlimited manner the personal data of its services on a European scale” in an “illegal” manner. The lawsuit stated that the company acted “without asking for or having the consent of the users and without any of the other bases being applied” contemplated by the regulations and with the objective of “expanding to the maximum the personalized, segmented and behavioral advertising business on which Meta bases its business model, with the consequence of having managed to increase said business (…) much further than its competitors.”
The core of the case has revolved around the impact of that competitive advantage, which for the plaintiffs put “the sustainability of the media” and “the right to information of Spanish citizens” at risk. After a previous hearing without agreement held a year ago, the trial took place during two sessions, on October 1 and 2, with witnesses provided by Meta and experts from both parties. The ruling leaves the litigation resolved in the first instance with the conviction of the technology giant.