MADRID, Spain (AFP) – A Madrid court set Wednesday an October 2025 trial date for a 550-million-euro lawsuit by more than 80 Spanish media against Facebook owner Meta for allegedly violating EU data protection rules.

EU rules oblige companies to obtain users’ consent to create personalised advertising from their data.

Spain’s main media association AMI says the US tech giant, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, created “unfair competition” by “systematically” breaking the law from May 2018 to July 2023.

Meta offered advertising spaces based on “an illegitimately obtained competitive advantage” to the detriment of traditional news media that respected the law, said AMI, which represents the owners of newspapers El Pais, El Mundo and La Vanguardia.

Meta’s lawyer Javier de Carvajal told a preliminary hearing in a Madrid commercial court on Wednesday that the company denied any damage or violation of EU rules.

The court agreed October 1 and 2 next year as the dates for the trial with AMI and Meta Ireland, the firm’s European headquarters.

The complainants’ lawyer Nicolas Gonzalez Cuellar told journalists that Meta says personal data are not used for personalised advertising and that it gained no competitive advantage.

Spanish radio and television stations have launched a separate lawsuit against Meta for the same reasons and are demanding 160 million euros ($169 million) in damages.