It has been a year of lawsuits for Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and, more recently, Threads’s parent company, Meta. In 2023 alone, the Tech behemoth has had to cough up interest on a $725 million settlement, while tackling a revived class action lawsuit from its shareholders. Adding to its list of woes, the company faced a over child safety violations. The case involving 33 U.S. states was filed on the 24th of October, 2023. This number grows to 42 states when considering the nine attorney generals who filed individual lawsuits in their states and the District of Columbia. sweeping class action lawsuit Barely two months after locking horns with the U.S. government, the adtech giant is again in the crosshairs of major legal action. This time, a group representing 83 Spanish media outlets holds the gun. As reported by , the group has filed a £550 million ($600 million) lawsuit against the company, citing unfair competition in the online advertising market. Reuters The AMI newspaper publishing association is the group responsible for this lawsuit. Their argument holds that Meta can offer highly personalized ads to users because the company taps into massive banks of personal data from its daughter companies (Facebook, Instagram, & WhatsApp). The newspapers claim that this results in unfair competition and highlights Meta’s “systematic non-compliance” with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This, the association maintains, has been a  constant violation dating back to May 2018-when the regulation was first enforced-that should attract appropriate compensation—$600 million worth. Must suck to be Mark Zuckerberg right now, ey? Well, maybe not too much, seeing as the California-based social media giant reported profits of , up 2.5% from the previous year.  Moreso, Zuckerberg’s youngest daughter company, Threads, is , formerly known as Twitter, in terms of new downloads, daily downloads since November 23, from about 350,000 in early November. $11.58 billion last quarter currently outpacing X climbing to 620,000 While the Meta camp may have enough reason to be all-smiles for now, new lawsuit regardless, the eventual ruling could be the start of an onslaught that would hit Meta across Europe- turning those smiles upside down. Nicolas Gonzalez Cuellar, a lawyer with the Spanish newspapers, told “Of course, in any other EU country, the same legal proceeding could be initiated” when speaking on the alleged GDPR non-compliance. Reuters This is not the first time Meta has been required to “pay for news.” On Jun 15, 2023, the Canadian parliament passed the —designed to force companies like Google and Meta to pay Canadian news publishers for the right to use their content. This would cost Meta and Google a yearly fee to the tune of $250 million, should they go along with the deals stipulated by the legislation. Meta’s response, then, was to ban news sharing in Canada, even as wildfires ravaged through British Columbia. Online News Act refusing to lift said ban While the Meta leadership is still locked in a battle of wits with the Canadian government, we’re curious to see how they deal with this new class-action-sized curve ball. Meta retains its position on HackerNoon’s at #37, while its daughter companies, Facebook and Instagram, hold spots in the Top 20. Facebook sits at the very top at #1, and Instagram hangs steady at #15. Tech Company Rankings 👋 You’re reading of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. goes live tomorrow. Hate waiting? No problemo! Just subscribe to receive the newsletter part 1 Part 2 here complete a day early in your inbox. In Other News… Nvidia CEO will look to Japan first for AI Processors - via The Japan Times Crypto stocks enjoy uptick as Bitcoin crosses $40K mark - via Reuters OpenAI’s GPT store stalls till 2024 following leadership debacle - via Tech Crunch Intel wins appeal to overcome $2.18 billion VLSI patent verdict - via Reuters Instagram and Facebook cross-messaging is coming to an end - via The Verge This brings us to the end of this week’s Tech Company News Brief. Don’t forget to share this newsletter with your family, friends, and everyone in between! See you next week! - , World News & SciFi Editor at HackerNoon Asher Umerie The Tech Company Brief is a weekly newsletter written by HackerNoon editors to help you dissect the last week in tech news! Subscribe here for the full scoop delivered straight to your inbox: https://hackernoon.com/tech-company-brief

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

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Meta Left with $600 Million Headache as Spanish Media Consortium Files Fresh Lawsuit

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