The group, La Asociación de Medios de Información (AMI), argues that Meta’s non-compliance with European data protection regulations from May 2018 to July 2023 was “systematic” and “massive,” and that the company ignored the requirement that citizens must consent to the use of their data for advertising profiling, according to a statement published by AMI.
In the lawsuit, Spanish media argue that Meta’s behavior means that “one hundred percent of the technology giant’s income derived from the sale of segmented advertising has been obtained illegitimately,” according to AMI’s press release summarizing the action. AMI’s president, José Joly, said that Meta’s dominance in the advertising market has generated “obvious damage to the Spanish media to the point of putting their sustainability at risk.”
AMI represents major Spanish publications, including El País, El Economista, La Vanguardia and Expansión.
González Cuéllar Abogados, a Madrid-based law firm focused on economic and litigation in criminal law, is representing the media companies against Meta, led by Nicolás González-Cuéllar Serrano.
In July, an Australian court fined Meta $13.3 million for failing to tell users of its free security app that it was collecting and sharing user data. That same month, the European Court of Justice upheld a decision by German antitrust regulators and, in doing so, said that competition watchdogs can consider data privacy concerns in antitrust investigations, potentially opening the door for further scrutiny of Meta’s business model by national authorities.