Meta Ordered to Pay $552 Million in Case Alleging GDPR Violations

Meta has reportedly been ordered to pay 479 million euros (about $552 million) after a Spanish court found that the company had violated the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and breached Spain’s antitrust law.

Madrid’s Commercial Court said Thursday (Nov. 20) that Meta used personal data for behavioral advertising on Facebook and Instagram, Reuters reported Thursday.

The compensation ordered by the court will be paid to 87 digital media agencies because the court ruled that Meta obtained a “significant competitive advantage” in Spain’s online advertising market by using that data, according to the report.

The Spanish agencies’ complaint centered on Meta justifying behavioral advertising on the basis of “necessity for the performance of a contract,” rather than user consent, from May 2018 to August 2023, the report said.

Regulators said that justification was inadequate, and the Spanish court determined that all the profits Meta earned from advertising during that five-year period were obtained in breach of the data protection regulation, per the report.

A Meta spokesperson told Reuters that it will appeal the ruling.

“This is a baseless claim that lacks any evidence of alleged harm and willfully ignores how the online advertising industry works,” the spokesperson said, per the report. “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.”

It was reported in December 2024 that this legal action was part of a broader global effort by traditional media outlets to challenge the dominance of tech companies in both courts and legislative arenas.

Media organizations argue that platforms like Facebook benefit disproportionately from sharing their content without compensation.

It was reported in October that Meta is facing another issue in the EU. The European Commission accused the firm of failing to meet its obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires large online platforms to ensure transparency and accountability.

The Commission said that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram did not appear to provide simple, user-friendly mechanisms for reporting illegal material and that the platforms made the process for independent researchers to obtain public data unnecessarily complicated and restrictive.