MADRID, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Facebook owner Meta Platforms ( META )

will face a trial in October 2025 in Spain over a 551

million euro ($582 million)complaint lodged by more than 80

media companies accusing it of unfair competition in

advertising, a Madrid court said on Friday.

The hearings will be held on Oct. 1 and 2, the 15th Madrid

commercial court said in a statement.

The AMI media association, which represents 87 Spanish media

firms, filed a lawsuit last year alleging Meta violated EU data

protection rules between 2018 and 2023.

The newspapers argue that Meta's "massive" and "systematic"

use of the personal data of its Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp

platform users gives it an unfair advantage in designing and

offering personalised ads, which they say constitutes unfair

competition.

A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request

for comment.

Listed newspapers publishers Prisa, which owns El

Pais newspaper, and Vocento, which owns ABC Newspaper,

are among the complainants.

Separately, Spanish TV and radio broadcasters associations

UTECA and AERC said last month they had filed a 160 million euro

lawsuit against Meta on the same grounds.

The Spanish suits represent efforts by legacy media to fight

tech giants in both courts and legislatures to preserve their

revenue, arguing such firms should pay fair fees for using and

sharing their content.

Some of these attempts have backfired in countries like

Canada and Australia, where Meta has blocked users from

reposting news articles.

In its other markets, Meta has been scaling back its

promotion of news and political content to drive traffic and

says news links now represent only a fraction of users' feeds.

($1 = 0.9471 euros)