diff --git a/doc/release-notes/12417-remove-meta-class.md b/doc/release-notes/12417-remove-meta-class.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..83f3f683a83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/release-notes/12417-remove-meta-class.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Class Meta was removed as it was no longer being used
diff --git a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/Meta.java b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/Meta.java
deleted file mode 100644
index f3a0d7cb96a..00000000000
--- a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/Meta.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,146 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * To change this license header, choose License Headers in Project Properties.
- * To change this template file, choose Tools | Templates
- * and open the template in the editor.
- */
-
-package edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.api;
-
-
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.DataFile;
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.DataFileServiceBean;
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.Dataset;
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.DatasetServiceBean;
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.export.DDIExportServiceBean;
-import java.util.logging.Logger;
-import jakarta.ejb.EJB;
-import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
-
-import jakarta.ws.rs.GET;
-import jakarta.ws.rs.Path;
-import jakarta.ws.rs.PathParam;
-import jakarta.ws.rs.QueryParam;
-import jakarta.ws.rs.Produces;
-import jakarta.ws.rs.core.Context;
-import jakarta.ws.rs.core.HttpHeaders;
-import jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
-import jakarta.ws.rs.NotFoundException;
-import jakarta.ws.rs.ServiceUnavailableException;
-
-/*
-    Custom API exceptions [NOT YET IMPLEMENTED]
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.api.exceptions.NotFoundException;
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.api.exceptions.ServiceUnavailableException;
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.api.exceptions.PermissionDeniedException;
-import edu.harvard.iq.dataverse.api.exceptions.AuthorizationRequiredException;
-*/
-
-/**
- *
- * PLEASE NOTE that the "/api/meta" endpoints are deprecated! All code should
- * point to the newer "/api/access/datafile/..." endpoints instead.
- *
- * @author Leonid Andreev
- * 
- * The metadata access API is based on the DVN metadata API v.1.0 (that came 
- * with the v.3.* of the DVN app) and extended for DVN 4.0 to include more
- * granular access to subsets of the metadata that describe the dataset:
- * access to individual datafile and datavariable sections, as well as  
- * specific fragments of these sections. 
- */
-
-@Deprecated
-@Path("meta")
-public class Meta {
-    private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(Meta.class.getCanonicalName());
-
-    @EJB
-    DDIExportServiceBean ddiExportService;
-    
-    @EJB
-    DataFileServiceBean datafileService; 
-    
-    @EJB
-    DatasetServiceBean datasetService;
-
-    // Because this API is deprecated, we prefer to continue letting it operate on fileId rather adding support for persistent identifiers.
-    @Deprecated
-    @Path("datafile/{fileId}")
-    @GET
-    @Produces({"text/xml"})
-    public String datafile(@PathParam("fileId") Long fileId, @QueryParam("fileMetadataId") Long fileMetadataId, @QueryParam("exclude") String exclude, @QueryParam("include") String include, @Context HttpHeaders header, @Context HttpServletResponse response) throws NotFoundException, ServiceUnavailableException /*, PermissionDeniedException, AuthorizationRequiredException*/ {
-        String retValue = "";
-
-        DataFile dataFile = null; 
-        
-        //httpHeaders.add("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename=\"dataverse_files.zip\"");
-        //httpHeaders.add("Content-Type", "application/zip; name=\"dataverse_files.zip\"");
-        response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename=\"dataverse_files.zip\"");
-        
-        dataFile = datafileService.find(fileId);
-        if (dataFile == null) {
-            throw new NotFoundException();
-        }
-        
-        String fileName = dataFile.getFileMetadata().getLabel().replaceAll("\\.tab$", "-ddi.xml");
-        response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename=\""+fileName+"\"");
-        response.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/xml; name=\""+fileName+"\"");
-        
-        ByteArrayOutputStream outStream = null;
-        outStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-
-        try {
-            ddiExportService.exportDataFile(
-                    fileId,
-                    outStream,
-                    exclude,
-                    include,
-                    fileMetadataId);
-
-            retValue = outStream.toString();
-
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            // For whatever reason we've failed to generate a partial 
-            // metadata record requested. 
-            // We return Service Unavailable.
-            throw new ServiceUnavailableException();
-        }
-
-        return retValue;
-    }
-    
-    @Deprecated
-    @Path("dataset/{datasetId}")
-    @GET
-    @Produces({"application/xml"})
-    public String dataset(@PathParam("datasetId") Long datasetId, @QueryParam("exclude") String exclude, @QueryParam("include") String include, @Context HttpHeaders header, @Context HttpServletResponse response) throws NotFoundException /*, ServiceUnavailableException, PermissionDeniedException, AuthorizationRequiredException*/ {
- 
-        Dataset dataset = datasetService.find(datasetId);
-        if (dataset == null) {
-            throw new NotFoundException();
-        }
-        
-        String retValue = "";
-
-        ByteArrayOutputStream outStream = null;
-        outStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-
-        try {
-            ddiExportService.exportDataset(
-                    datasetId,
-                    outStream,
-                    exclude,
-                    include);
-
-            retValue = outStream.toString();
-
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            // For whatever reason we've failed to generate a partial 
-            // metadata record requested. We simply return an empty string.
-            throw new ServiceUnavailableException();
-        }
-
-        return retValue;
-    }
-    
-}