A commercial court in
Madrid has ordered Meta, the parent company of
Facebook,
Instagram, and
WhatsApp, to pay over 542 million euros in compensation to 87 Spanish media outlets for violating the EU's
GDPR and engaging in unfair competition.
The court found Meta unlawfully processed data from millions of users for personalized advertising between May 2018 and July 2023, causing harm to Spanish digital media advertising revenues. Meta plans to appeal the ruling, denying claims of harm and asserting compliance with the law while the Spanish government intends to summon Meta officials to investigate privacy violations further.