Since 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union establishes the prohibition of users of internet services from being tracked in their digital activity for advertising purposes without their consent, but there is a company that is This regulation has stuck him ever since: Goal. The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg was sued last Friday by the 83 Spanish media outlets that make up the Information Media Association (AMI), for unfair competition and demanded compensation of 550 million euros for its “continued systematic and massive breach of European data protection regulations” between May 2018 and July 2023.
The Spanish media estimate, based on different resolutions of the European data protection authorities, that “Meta has repeatedly failed to comply with the Community data protection legislation, ignoring the regulatory requirement that citizens must consent to the use of their data to advertising profiling”. These decisions by regulators have been a constant since the application of the GDPR, which Meta has tried to circumvent so far with little success.
At the beginning of last November, the European Data Protection Board (JEPD) ordered the data protection regulator of Ireland – where M eta has its European headquarters – to prohibit on its platforms “all processing of personal data for the purposes of advertising based in behavior.” This was a blanket order for all European Economic Area countries generalizing a ban put in place months ago by Norway's data protection regulator.
The publishers state in their lawsuit that "Meta's behavior determines that one hundred percent of the technology giant's income derived from the sale of segmented advertising has been obtained illegitimately."
For this reason, they denounce that the Californian company makes “systematic and massive use of users' personal data” on its platforms, so that they are “tracked without their consent throughout their digital browsing.” These practices, according to the plaintiffs, “would have allowed the American company to offer the sale of advertising space on the market based on an illegitimately obtained competitive advantage.”
The president of AMI, José Joly Martínez de Salazar, highlighted after the lawsuit – run by the law firm headed by Professor of Procedural Law Nicolás González-Cuéllar – that Meta has built its dominant position in the advertising market by disregarding the regulations. designed to protect the fundamental right to privacy of European citizens.
The fact that Meta tracks their digital activity without users' permission is detrimental to the Spanish media to the point "of putting their sustainability at risk," according to an information note from the AMI. Joly Martínez de Salazar recalled that the media is fundamental for the democratic quality of a country.
The president of the AMI observed that data recently published by the Ministry of Economy shows that the media is the second most digitalized sector of the Spanish economy, only surpassed by the technology companies themselves.
This leadership position in the digital field, which requires constant innovation and investment effort, has been achieved, as noted by Joly Martínez de Salazar, despite the fact that large technological platforms prevent the media from obtaining fair monetization.
The AMI also called on advertisers, both in the public and private sectors, to entrust their advertising campaigns to “safe, reliable and responsible” media, respectful of the rights of citizens and committed to promoting democratic quality. from Spain".
The European data protection regulator's order for Meta to stop tracking the activity of European citizens on the internet is binding and was notified to Meta on October 30. In a strategy to try to circumvent the ban, that same day Mark Zuckerberg's company announced that last November it would establish paid subscription packages starting at 9.99 euros per month for its European users who do not want their data to be tracked.
Just as he announced, he launched it. If consent is not given to data tracking for advertising purposes, it offers payment of the fee, an approach which, if maintained, means that the guarantee of a statutory right only exists if a fee is paid. The JEPD announced that it took note of Meta's proposal for an approach “based on consent as a legal basis”, and that it would study it. In any case, the president of the regulatory body, the Finnish Anu Talus, stated in a statement that "the contract is not an adequate legal basis for the processing of personal data carried out by Meta for behavior-based advertising." “It is time for Meta (...) to put an end to illegal treatment,” she added.
Facebook and Instagram have around 250 million users in the European regulated space – which includes, in addition to the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
In July, the Court of Justice of the European Union determined that social media users are “free to individually refuse (...) to give their consent to certain data processing operations.” In May, Meta was fined 1.2 billion euros for transferring data from European users to the US, which violates the GDPR.
