Meta Faces Trial In Spain Regarding Unfair Competition Cases

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, continues to face lawsuits over market dominance (photo: x @303gregation ·)

JAKARTA Meta Platforms, Facebook's parent company, will face trial in October 2025 over a lawsuit worth 551 million euros (Rp9.2 trillion) filed by more than 80 media companies in Spain. The lawsuit alleges Meta is making unfair competition in digital advertising by illegally utilizing users' personal data.

The Spanish Media Association (AMI) representing 87 media companies filed this lawsuit, accusing Meta of violating EU data protection rules between 2018 and 2023. The lawsuit states Meta used Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp user data "massive" and systematic' to target personal advertising, providing unfair profits compared to traditional media.

Big companies such as Prisa, owner of the newspapers El Pais, and Vocento, owner of the ABC Newspaper, are on the list of plaintiffs. Madrid's Commercial Court determined the trial would take place on October 1 and 2, 2025.

"Meta has unfair advantages through the use of personal data in personalized design and advertising offers," AMI representatives said in a statement.

Meta has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The Spanish TV and radio broadcaster Association, UTECA and AERC, also filed a lawsuit worth 160 million euros against Meta on similar charges.

This effort is part of traditional media measures in various countries to fight the dominance of tech giants and demand fair compensation for the use of their content. However, in countries like Canada and Australia, similar measures have led Meta to block users from sharing news articles.

Meta itself has reduced the promotion of news and political content in various markets, saying that news links now cover only a small part of the user's feed.