In a landmark legal battle, 67 French media companies representing more than 200 publications have launched a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, accusing it of illegal business practices in the digital advertising sector.
The case was filed on Wednesday before the Paris business tribunal by a coalition of prominent French television networks, newspapers, and radio stations.
The plaintiffs include leading media outlets such as TF1, France Télévisions, BFM TV, Le Figaro, Radio France, Lagardère, Libération, L’Express, La Dépêche, and Centre France.
According to the law firms representing them — Scott+Scott and Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier — Meta’s dominant position in online advertising has been fueled by the “massive and unlawful” harvesting of users’ personal data.
The media companies allege that Meta collected personal data from users without properly informing them or obtaining their consent, a direct violation of European Union data protection regulations, particularly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This data was then allegedly used to power highly targeted advertising, enabling Meta to absorb a disproportionate share of the digital advertising market.
“By exploiting this data to offer ultra-targeted advertising, Meta was able to capture the majority of advertising investments to the detriment of the media,” the plaintiffs’ legal representatives stated.
They characterized the lawsuit as a “historic first” in Europe’s ongoing battle to curb the influence of tech giants over the digital economy.
The legal filing contends that without Meta’s unfair practices, French media outlets would have received a “significantly larger share” of digital advertising revenues.
According to the media coalition, Meta and fellow tech behemoth Google currently control around 75 percent of the online advertising market and account for 90 percent of its growth.
With advertising making up 98 percent of Meta’s global revenue, the plaintiffs argue that its practices have significantly distorted the market. Meta has not issued an official response to the lawsuit at the time of reporting.
This legal action in France is the latest in a string of regulatory and legal challenges facing Meta across Europe.
In Spain, Meta is due to face trial this October over a separate €551 million lawsuit filed by more than 80 media companies on similar grounds of unfair competition in advertising.
Meanwhile, in February, digital rights advocates across the EU also lodged complaints regarding Meta’s advertising practices.
Just this week, European Union antitrust regulators fined Meta €200 million for breaching EU data privacy rules.
The penalty focused on Meta’s controversial “pay for privacy” policy, which offers users the choice between sharing personal data for targeted ads or paying a subscription fee to avoid such tracking — a model regulators argue undermines data protection principles.
As the legal pressure mounts, the outcome of the French lawsuit could set a significant precedent for how digital advertising and user data practices are regulated across the European Union.
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