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Spain's parliament to investigate Meta for privacy

violations

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Research suggests Meta tracked Android users' web activity

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Meta faces scrutiny under EU laws including GDPR and DSA

(Adds context from paragraph 5)

By Charlie Devereux and Aislinn Laing

MADRID, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Spain's parliament will

investigate Meta for possible privacy violations of its

Facebook and Instagram users, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro

Sanchez said on Wednesday.

"In Spain, the law is above any algorithm or any large

technology platform. And anyone who violates our rights will pay

the consequences," Sanchez said in a statement.

The investigation stems from international research that

found Meta had used a hidden mechanism to track the web activity

of Android device users, Sanchez's office said.

Meta did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Spain's investigation into the U.S. tech giant threatens to

further sour relations with Washington, which has rounded on

Madrid over its failure to meet NATO spending targets and for

its friendliness with Beijing.

President Donald Trump's administration has also criticised

the EU's Digital Markets Act, which seeks to curb the power of

Big Tech, and the Digital Services Act, which requires large

online platforms to tackle illegal and harmful content.

Spain's government said Meta may have violated various

European Union laws on security and privacy including its

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the ePrivacy

Directive, the DMA and the DSA.

Meta, which is led by U.S. billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, will

be called to testify before a lower house committee, it added.

The company has had several legal clashes with the European

Commission, which in preliminary findings in October said Meta

and TikTok had breached their legal obligation to grant

researchers adequate access to public data.

The Commission fined Meta 798 million euros ($923 million)

in 2024 for abusive practices benefiting Facebook Marketplace

while in July last year it charged the company for failing to

comply with the DMA in its new pay or consent advertising model.

($1 = 0.8642 euros)