The Spanish justice system sentenced Goalparent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay more than $620 million to local media for “unfair competition,” considering that it violated regulations on the protection of personal data, a decision that could set precedents.
The technology giant had been sued for having used user data between 2018 and 2023 without their consent to create individualized advertising profiles, which would have brought great benefits to the detriment of the Spanish media that complied with the legislation.
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The plaintiff entity, the Information Media Association (AMI), celebrated in a statement “the historic ruling” that “protects the future of journalism and democracy.”
The Madrid commercial court in charge of the case considered that the American company obtained “a significant competitive advantage by advertising on its social networks Facebook and Instagram in violation of the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),” as reported in a statement on Thursday.
In addition to the 479 million euros (about 550 million dollars) that must be paid to the members of AMI, Meta will have to pay 60 million euros for legal interests, as well as other smaller compensation to other media that are not part of the AMI.
Meta, for his part, rejected the court’s decision, which in his opinion is based on “a baseless claim that lacks any evidence of alleged harm and deliberately ignores how the online advertising industry works,” and stated that he will appeal.
“Massive profiling”
During the trial, held in October, AMI argued that Meta had carried out “massive profiling of the behavior of all Internet users” and, based on it, “without having informed and obtained the consent of citizens, it would have been selling segmented advertising and generating enormous profits,” as Irene Lanzaco, its general director, explained at the time.
Meta managers tried to show, however, that for advertising, user data is less important than the algorithms used to make the ads relevant to each Internet user, and that they have made large investments to develop these tools.
The judge had to make a calculation to determine the amount of damage caused, since Meta “has not contributed to the procedure the accounts of his business in Spain,” the court explained.
The violation lasted between May 2018, when the regulations came into force, and August 2023, when Meta changed the legal basis for consent.
In this period, based on the data provided by the Spanish digital press, the magistrate concluded that the company earned more than 5,281 million euros in Spain with the online advertising business.
The judge considered that part of that money “must be distributed to the rest of the competitors in the Spanish advertising market, among them, the Spanish digital press,” since it had been obtained “in violation of the RGPD.”
Taking into consideration the “profits not received as a consequence of Meta’s actions”, he set the figure at 479 million euros for AMI, 2.57 million for Europa Press and 13,563 euros for Radio Blanca.
This photo illustration created on January 7, 2025, in Washington, DC, shows an image of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and an image of the Meta logo. Social media giant Meta on January 7, 2025, slashed its content moderation policies, including ending its US fact-checking program, in a major shift that conforms with the priorities of incoming president Donald Trump. (Photo by Drew ANGERER / AFP)
The ruling marks “the path”
Among the 83 media outlets represented by the AMI are El País, El Mundo, ABC and La Vanguardia.
The court also noted that a similar complaint is being processed in France and that the sentence now handed down is in line with the legislation “called to play a fundamental role in controlling the excesses that may be committed with the illicit processing of personal data and the enormous informational and economic power that the technological giants have.”
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the conviction in Spain that “opens the way for an efficient offensive against unfair competition from platforms.” in Europe regarding the media.”
The day before, the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, had attacked Meta by announcing that he will promote an investigation into the company and that Parliament will summon those responsible to clarify whether the technology giant violated the privacy of millions of users through an alleged hidden system in users of Android devices.
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