Spanish court orders Meta to pay €481m in damages to media outlets

A Madrid-based court has ordered the social media giant Meta to pay €481 million in damages to 81 Spanish media outlets, marking a victory for legacy news companies. The group of media outlets filed a €550m lawsuit in December 2023. The mercantile court ruled that Meta violated the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for five years by illegally processing vast quantities of internet users' personal data for highly effective advertising.

The court found that this practice created an unfair market advantage that Spanish digital media outlets could not match, significantly harming their online advertising revenues. The court confirmed that the social media company had violated European regulations for five years, until it updated its legal basis for processing in 2023. 

Meta has said that it intends to appeal the decision. In a statement, the company said: "This is a baseless claim that lacks any evidence of alleged harm and willfully ignores how the online advertising industry works.

"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."

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