Spain: Court orders Meta to pay millions to media in unfair competition case

A Madrid court ordered Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, to pay €479 million (about $550 million) to more than 80 Spanish media outlets for "unfair competition," as well as another €60 million in interest, the court said in a statement.

The commercial court in charge of the case found that the U.S. company gained "a significant competitive advantage by advertising on its social networks Facebook and Instagram in breach of the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)," the text said.

In addition to the €479 million to be paid to members of the Media Information Association (AMI), the main Spanish media trade group, Meta must also pay €60 million in legal interest, as well as other smaller indemnities to media outlets such as Europa Press, which is not part of the AMI.

Meta did not immediately respond to AFP's questions about its position on the ruling.

AMI had sued Meta Ireland, where the U.S. tech giant has its European headquarters, in December 2023. The association was claiming €551 million from the company for unfair competition in the sale of digital advertising.

Among the 83 media outlets represented by AMI are El País, El Mundo, ABC or La Vanguardia.

"Meta Ireland, the headquarters of Meta Spain, has not provided to the proceedings the accounts of its business in Spain," the court explained in a statement.

The judge then relied on data provided by the Spanish digital press and concluded that during the five years that the infringement lasted from May 25, 2018, the date the GDPR came into force, to Aug. 1, 2023, the date Meta switches to the legal basis of user consent, the company had earned in Spain from the online advertising business more than €5.281 million.

The judge considered that part of that money "should be distributed to the rest of the competitors in the Spanish advertising market, among them, to the Spanish digital press," since it had been obtained "with infringement of the RGPD."

The court therefore calculated the damages to the Spanish digital press with "a reasonable plausibility," according to the court's note.

"The magistrate presumes that the amount won was higher because, if it had been lower, META would have presented the accounts of its business in Spain in the proceedings," the statement said.