In a lawsuit that could be repeated throughout the European Union, a group representing 83 Spanish media sites has filed a 550 million euro ($600 million) complaint against Facebook’s owner, Meta Platforms, charging unfair competition in the advertising industry.
The complaint, which was filed jointly by the newspapers with a commercial court on Friday, claims that Meta (META.O) violated EU data protection legislation between 2018 and 2023, according to a statement released by the AMI media alliance on Monday.
The newspapers argue that Meta’s “massive” and “systematic” use of personal data of its Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp platform users gives it an unfair advantage of designing and offering personalised ads, which they say constitutes unfair competition.
Meta’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Meta source familiar with the matter said the company was yet to receive the legal documents.