Meta must pay for illicit use of personal data

Madrid Commercial Court No. 15 ordered Meta Platforms Ireland Limited to pay €479 million to 87 Spanish digital media publishers, finding that the company gained a significant unfair competitive advantage in the digital advertising market through the unlawful processing of personal data from Facebook and Instagram users. The court held that Meta breached the GDPR by relying on an invalid legal basis for data processing, enabling a level of advertising profiling unattainable for compliant competitors. Although subject to appeal, the ruling sets a major precedent by directly linking data protection violations to unfair competition in digital markets.