By Ciaran Giles
MADRID (AP) --A Spanish association representing more than 80 newspapers has filed a lawsuit against Facebook parent Meta accusing it of unfair competition in online advertising by allegedly ignoring European Union rules on data protection.
In a statement, the Information Media Association said it is demanding 550 million euros ($600 million) from the social media giant. The association represents dozens of newspapers including Spain's principal dailies El PaÃs, El Mundo, ABC and La Vanguardia.
The association accuses Meta of "systematic and massive non-compliance" with EU data protection regulations between May 2018, when they took force, and July 2023.
It said Meta has repeatedly ignored the requirement that citizens give their consent to the use of their data for advertising profiling.
The company declined to comment, saying it hadn't seen the legal papers.
Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms have long used behavioral advertising to make money. The practice involves tracking individual online behavior such as web browsing habits, mouse clicks and app usage, then using that data to build profiles for targeting ads to users.
But court rulings have eroded Meta's ability to justify its methods under the EU's data privacy regulations. In July, the EU's top court ruled the company can't force users in the 27-nation bloc to agree to personalized ads, saying users need to freely give their consent. Meta responded by offering ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram for European users for a monthly fee.
The Spanish association said the use of personal data of users of Meta platforms, tracked without their consent, allowed the U.S. company to offer advertising space based on an "illegitimately obtained competitive advantage," indirectly threatening the livelihood of Spanish media.
It called 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 democratic quality in Spain."
"The time has come to put an end to the behavior of technology companies that can afford to pay million-dollar penalties to continue failing to comply with regulations, destroying the market in which we operate and making the illegitimately obtained income their own," said Irene Lanzaco, director general of the association.
The case was filed at Madrid's mercantile courts.
Associated Press writer Kelvin Chan in London contributed.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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