The Association of Information Media (AMI) has filed a lawsuit claiming €550 million, on behalf of 83 Spanish media outlets, against Meta for its continuous, systematic and massive breach of European data protection regulations, in the period between May 25, 2018 and unattended, at least July 31, 2023.

According to the different resolutions of the competent European data protection authorities, Meta, the company that encompasses Facebook, and others such as Instagram, WhatsApp or Oculus, led by Mark Zuckerberg, have repeatedly failed to comply with EU data protection legislation, ignoring the regulatory requirement that citizens must consent to the use of their data for advertising profiling

In the opinion of the plaintiffs, Meta's conduct determines that one hundred percent of the tech giant's revenue derived from the sale of targeted advertising has been obtained in an illegitimate way.

The systematic and massive use of personal data of users of Meta's platforms, tracked without their consent throughout their digital browsing, would have allowed the American company to offer the sale of advertising space on the market based on an illegitimately obtained competitive advantage.

The direction of the action carried out by the Spanish media has been entrusted to the law firm led by the professor of Procedural Law Nicolás González-Cuéllar.

The president of AMI, José Joly Martínez de Salazar, has highlighted the importance of this "unprecedented" action, which highlights how the technology giant "has built its dominant position in the advertising market by disregarding the regulations designed to protect the fundamental right to privacy of European citizens, and generating obvious damage to the Spanish media to the point of putting their privacy at risk. sustainability."

The president of the Spanish media stressed that behaviours such as those developed by Meta "jeopardize the sustainability of the media, which are fundamental for the democratic quality of a country".

Likewise, the president of AMI highlighted that, according to data recently published by the Ministry of Economy, "the media are the second most digitized sector of the Spanish economy, only surpassed by the technology companies themselves".

These data certify that the media are pioneers in digitalization in Spain and that they obtain an outstanding positioning in the digital sphere as a result of their constant innovation and investment effort, despite the fact that the dominance of the digital ecosystem by the large platforms prevents the media from obtaining a fair monetization.

The Association of Information Media calls on advertisers 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 the democratic quality of Spain", all in coherence with their ESG policies. (Environment, Society and Corporate Governance).

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