A court in Spain said Thursday it has ordered Facebook owner Meta to pay local media outlets 479 million euros ($552 million) in compensation for "unfair competition" plus 60 million euros in interest.

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

Spain's main media association AMI filed a lawsuit in 2023 against the US tech giant, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, accusing it of creating "unfair competition" by "systematically" breaking the law between May 2018 and July 2023.

A Madrid commercial court which heard the case last month ruled in favour of AMI, saying Meta had gained a "significant competitive advantage" in its digital adverstising sales by violating the data protection rules.

AMI had been seeking 551 million e

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