Facebook owner Meta is up against a massive legal battle and damages claim in Spain. The plaintiffs argue that the ad tech giant should pay them for a competition violation since it has been processing people's data for adverts without a clear legal basis for years, in accordance with European Union data protection regulations.
'Systematic, Massive Non-Compliance'
The lawsuit is being supported by AMI, a group of newspaper owners that counts more than 80 members, including the publishers of El País, ABC, and La Vanguardia, among others.
Meta is being sued for what the plaintiffs call its "systematic and massive non-compliance" with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). They are aiming for over €550 million (about $600 million).
In a press release, the media group said Meta has consistently disregarded the legislative requirement that individuals must provide their agreement before their data may be used for advertising profiling, thereby failing to comply with EU data protection regulations.
"The systematic and massive use of personal data of users of Meta platforms, tracked without their consent throughout their digital browsing, would have allowed the American company to offer the sale of advertising space on the market based on an illegitimately obtained competitive advantage," the statement reads, as reported by TechCrunch. The group is establishing that their lawsuit contends that 100% of Meta's regional revenue was unlawfully obtained.
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Requirement for Consent Ignored?
Allegedly, Meta has willfully disregarded the need for individuals to get their permission before their data may be used for advertising profiling.
In January, Meta was fined €390 million ($422 million) by EU data protection regulators for tracking and profiling users to target adverts against a contract.
The final GDPR ruling established that the tech giant was in violation of the legislation, which paved the way for private privacy lawsuits like this one to be brought. Thus, other cases like this will likely emerge.
According to ABC News, Meta's ad processing from May 2018, when the GDPR went into effect until July 2018 is the focus of AMI's complaint. In light of what the complainants term "Meta's persistence in its non-compliance," however, they are not ruling out the prospect of extending the duration of their lawsuit if necessary.
For ad processing in the area, Meta has changed its claimed legal basis twice since the January penalty. It first switched to asserting what it termed "legitimate interests" as its foundation. Nonetheless, in July 2022, the CJEU ruled that Meta's super profiling was also invalidated, ending a separate and lengthy competition and privacy challenge launched by Germany's competition authority.
The AMI's challenge cites an October 27 urgent binding decision by the European Data Protection Board, issued after Norway's data protection authority requested it due to Meta's continued processing of personal data without a legal basis.
