Meta faces $598 mn lawsuit from Spanish media association: Report

San Francisco: An association of 83 Spanish media outlets has filed a $598 million (550 million euro) lawsuit against Meta (formerly Facebook), accusing the tech giant of engaging in unfair competition within the advertising market, media report said on Monday.

The lawsuit was filed by the AMI newspaper publishing association in a commercial court on Friday in Madrid, reports BNN Breaking.

The dispute centres on advertising income, with AMI alleging that Meta is illegally raking in 100 per cent of the revenue from segmented advertising, violating European privacy regulations.

Moreover, the report mentioned AMI has urged advertisers to direct their advertising campaigns to media outlets that are "safe, reliable, and responsible" as part of its efforts to level the playing field.

In July, an Australian court ordered Meta platforms to pay fines of nearly $14 million (AUS$20 million) for misleading consumers about the use of their data.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) sued Meta over its use of Onavo back in December 2020.

The federal court has ordered the two subsidiaries of Meta, Facebook Israel and Onavo Inc, to each pay AUS$10 million for engaging in conduct liable to mislead in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.

The subsidiaries, which were the Onavo Protect VPN app's developers and suppliers, were found to be responsible for misleading app descriptions displayed in Google and Apple App Store listings.