BRUSSELS, May 14 (Reuters) - Austrian advocacy group

NOYB said on Wednesday it would seek an injunction against Meta

Platforms ( META ) that could lead to billion-euro damages

claims if the tech giant goes ahead with plans to use Europeans'

personal data to train its artificial intelligence models.

NOYB (none of your business), led by privacy activist Max

Schrems, said it had sent a cease and desist letter on Wednesday

to Meta which plans to start using personal data from European

users of Instagram and Facebook from May 27.

Meta has cited a legitimate interest under EU privacy rules

for using users' data to train and develop its generative AI

models and other AI tools, which can be shared with third

parties.

The U.S. tech giant said last month that users would receive

a link to a form where they can object to their data being used

for training purposes and that private messages and public data

from accounts of users under the age of 18 will not be used in

the training.

Schrems criticised Meta's rationale.

"The European Court of Justice has already held that Meta

cannot claim a 'legitimate interest' in targeting users with

advertising. How should it have a 'legitimate interest' to suck

up all data for AI training?" he said in a statement.

"We are currently evaluating our options to file

injunctions, but there is also the option for a subsequent class

action for non-material damages. If you think about the more

than 400 million European Meta users who could all demand

damages of just 500 euros or so, you can do the math," Schrems

said.

NOYB said an injunction could be filed under the EU

Collective Redress which enables consumers to pursue collective

lawsuits against companies in the bloc. It set a May 21 deadline

for Meta to respond.

NOYB, which last year called on EU privacy enforcers to act,

said Meta could give users an option to opt-in rather than

opt-out and also provide clear conditions for AI training such

as using anonymised user data, in line with EU privacy rules.