MADRID (Reuters) – Fb proprietor Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) will face a trial in October 2025 in Spain over a 551 million euro ($582 million)grievance lodged by greater than 80 media firms accusing it of unfair competitors in promoting, a Madrid court docket mentioned on Friday.
The hearings might be held on Oct. 1 and a couple of, the fifteenth Madrid business court docket mentioned in an announcement.
The AMI media affiliation, which represents 87 Spanish media corporations, filed a lawsuit final yr alleging Meta violated EU knowledge safety guidelines between 2018 and 2023.
The newspapers argue that Meta’s “huge” and “systematic” use of the private knowledge of its Fb, Instagram and Whatsapp platform customers offers it an unfair benefit in designing and providing personalised adverts, which they are saying constitutes unfair competitors.
A Meta spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Listed newspapers publishers Prisa (BME:), which owns El Pais newspaper, and Vocento, which owns ABC Newspaper, are among the many complainants.
Individually, Spanish TV and radio broadcasters associations UTECA and AERC mentioned final month that they had filed a 160 million euro lawsuit towards Meta on the identical grounds.
The Spanish fits characterize efforts by legacy media to combat tech giants in each courts and legislatures to protect their income, arguing such corporations ought to pay honest charges for utilizing and sharing their content material.
A few of these makes an attempt have backfired in international locations like Canada and Australia, the place Meta has blocked customers from reposting information articles.
In its different markets, Meta has been scaling again its promotion of stories and political content material to drive visitors and says information hyperlinks now characterize solely a fraction of customers’ feeds.
($1 = 0.9471 euros)
