In a significant development, an association of Spanish media outlets, representing 83 publishers, has lodged a €550 million ($594 million) lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. The lawsuit alleges that the Facebook and Instagram owner has consistently breached data protection regulations from May 2018 to July 2023. The association, known as La Asociación de Medios de Información (AMI), holds that Meta’s non-adherence to these regulations was both ‘systematic’ and ‘massive’.
AMI maintains that Meta disregarded the key requirement that users must provide their consent for their data to be used for advertising profiling. It argues that this non-compliance gave Meta an obtuse competitive edge in the advertising market. All these allegations are based on a statement issued by AMI, which brings together media organizations from across Spain.
For a comprehensive understanding of the lawsuit, it is advisable to review the details provided in the lawsuit, which has been comprehensively covered in this article.
- The lawsuit posits that Meta was consistently in violation of European data protection regulations for five years.
- The alleged non-compliance was both ‘systematic’ and ‘massive’.
- Meta is accused of ignoring compliance requirements mandating user’s consent for advertising profiling.
- AMI contends that this disregard enabled it to secure an unfair competitive advantage in the advertising market.