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According to a court statement, the mercantile court No. 15 of
Madrid ruled that Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant had
exercised an unfair market advantage by extracting personal data
of internet users in violation of European law and using it to
create more effective advertising.
The parent company of Instagram and Facebook will have to pay
481 million ($554 million) in damages to 81 Spanish media
outlets which brought the suit to court.
“The illicit treatment of this enormous quantity of personal
data meant Meta had an advantage that Spanish online media could
not match,” the court wrote in a statement. “Meta’s actions
harmed the online advertising revenues of Spanish digital media
outlets.”
The court agreed with the Spanish media outlets that Meta had
violated European regulations for five years, before the
American company updated its legal base of consent on compiling
personal data in 2023 to bring it in line with European law.
The 2018 EU rules, known as the General Data Protection
Regulation, require companies that collect personal data of
users to adhere to technical and organizational measures aimed
at protecting user privacy.
Meta said it will appeal, calling the ruling “baseless.”
“This is a baseless claim that lacks any evidence of alleged
harm and willfully ignores how the online advertising industry
works," Meta said in a statement. "Meta complies with all
applicable laws, and has provided clear choices, transparent
information and given users a range of tools to control their
experience on our services.”
This is not the first time Meta has run afoul of the EU data
norms. In 2022, Irish regulators slapped Meta with a 265
million-euro (then $277 million) fine for breaking them.
The Spanish court said that its ruling could influence other
legal cases in Europe, including in France where Meta faces a
similar case.
Meta has been pushing for the EU to loosen its regulations,
which offer better protection to users than in the United
States.
Last week, Spain's financial markets supervisor has slapped Elon
Musk’s X with a 5 million-euro ($5.8-million) fine for allowing
an unauthorized cryptocurrency platform alleged of using
fraudulent publicity to advertise on the social media network.
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AP business writer Kelvin Chan contributed to this story from
London.
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