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Court says Meta breached EU data protection regulations

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Compensation to be paid to 87 digital media outlets

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Ruling can be appealed. No immediate comment from Meta

(Adds detail from ruling, context from paragraph 5)

MADRID, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A Spanish court has ordered

Facebook owner Meta to pay 479 million euros ($552

million) to Spanish digital media outlets for unfair competition

practices and infringing European Union data protection

regulation.

Madrid's Commercial Court said on Thursday that the

compensation, to be paid out to 87 digital press publishers and

news agencies, was linked to Meta's use of personal data for

behavioural advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

It said the U.S. tech giant had obtained a "significant

competitive advantage" in Spain's online advertising market by

unlawfully processing user data.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

LATEST IN SERIES OF EUROPEAN INVESTIGATIONS INTO META

The court said Meta had violated the EU's General Data

Protection Regulation, therefore also breaching Spain's

antitrust law.

The complaint brought by the Spanish outlets focussed on

Meta's change of legal basis for processing personal data when

the GDPR took effect in May 2018.

Meta shifted from user consent to "necessity for the

performance of a contract" to justify behavioural advertising.

Regulators later deemed that basis inadequate.

In August 2023, Meta reverted to consent as its legal basis.

The judge estimated that in those five years, Meta earned at

least 5.3 billion euros in profits from advertising and treated

the entire amount as obtained in breach of the GDPR.

A similar claim is currently under review in France.

The ruling, which is subject to appeal, is the latest in a

series of fines Meta has faced in Europe.

Last year, the European Commission fined Meta nearly 800

million euros for tying its online classified ads service

Facebook Marketplace to its social network Facebook and for

imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified

ads service providers.

Spain's left-wing government has also targeted Meta's

alleged privacy violations, with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez

saying on Wednesday a lower house committee would investigate

Meta for allegedly using a hidden mechanism to track the web

activity of Android device users. Meta said it would work with

Spanish officials on the issue.

($1 = 0.8681 euros)