Facebook owner Meta Platforms will go on trial in Spain in October 2025 about a 551 million euro ($582 million) complaint filed by over 80 media businesses alleging unfair competition in advertising, according to a Madrid court on Friday.
TakeAway Points:
- Meta Platforms will face a trial in October 2025 in Spain over a 551 million euro ($582 million) complaint lodged by more than 80 media companies accusing it of unfair competition in advertising.
- The AMI media association, which represents 87 Spanish media firms, filed a lawsuit last year alleging Meta violated EU data protection rules between 2018 and 2023.
- Italy’s data protection watchdog has warned Italian publisher GEDI not to share its personal data archives with ChatGPT owner OpenAI, it said on Friday, citing concern over potential breaches of EU rules.
Meta platforms alleged to be involved in unfair competition
The hearings will be held on Oct. 1 and 2, the 15th Madrid commercial court said in a statement.
The AMI media association, which represents 87 Spanish media firms, filed a lawsuit last year alleging Meta violated EU data protection rules between 2018 and 2023.
The newspapers argue that Meta’s “massive” and “systematic” use of the personal data of its Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp platform users gives it an unfair advantage in designing and offering personalised ads, which they say constitutes unfair competition.
Listed newspaper publishers Prisa, which owns El Pais newspaper, and Vocento, which owns ABC Newspaper, are among the complainants.
Separately, Spanish TV and radio broadcasters associations UTECA and AERC said last month they had filed a 160 million euro lawsuit against Meta on the same grounds.
The Spanish suits represent efforts by legacy media to fight tech giants in both courts and legislatures to preserve their revenue, arguing such firms should pay fair fees for using and sharing their content.
Some of these attempts have backfired in countries like Canada and Australia, where Meta has blocked users from reposting news articles.
In its other markets, Meta has been scaling back its promotion of news and political content to drive traffic and says news links now represent only a fraction of users’ feeds.
Italian Watchdog Asked GEDI Not To Share Data With OpenAI
Italy’s data protection authority issued a warning on Friday to Italian publisher GEDI not to disclose its personal data archives with ChatGPT owner OpenAI.
GEDI, owned by the Agnelli family’s holding company Exor, announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI in September to bring Italian-language content from the publisher’s portfolio of news outlets to users of the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup.
In Italy, GEDI publishes the daily newspapers La Repubblica and La Stampa.
Under the OpenAI deal, ChatGPT users will have access to attributed quotes, content, and links to GEDI’s publications, while GEDI’s journalism can also be used to improve the accuracy of OpenAI products.
“The digital archives of newspapers contain the stories of millions of people, with information, details, and even extremely sensitive personal data that cannot be licensed without due care for use by third parties to train artificial intelligence,” the regulator said in a statement.
“If GEDI, on the basis of the agreement signed with OpenAI, were to disclose to the latter the personal data contained in its archive, it could violate EU regulation, with all the consequences, including those of a sanctioning nature.”
GEDI said that the agreement it signed with OpenAI did not involve the sale of personal data. “The project has not been launched yet; therefore, no editorial content has been made available to OpenAI at the moment and will not be until the reviews under way are completed,” it said in a statement.
The Italian publisher said it would continue to discuss with the authority and hoped that “a constructive dialogue can be quickly opened to protect the interests and rights of all the parties involved”.
