New anti-record: Meta fined €1.2 billion

Meta, the parent company of the social media platform Facebook, received a record-breaking fine of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

Facebook (Meta) logo on the wall – illustrative photo. Image credit: Anthony Quintano via Flickr, CC BY 2.0

This fine has been imposed by the main privacy regulator of the European Union (EU), motivating that the company has been mishandling user data.

The Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) of Ireland, the authority behind this verdict, has given Meta a five-month period to cease transferring users’ data to the United States.

This penalty was levied against the social media giant because it continued to transfer data even after a 2020 EU court ruling declared an EU-US data transfer agreement invalid. It surpasses the previous highest privacy fine in the EU, which amounted to 746 million euros imposed on Amazon.com Inc by Luxembourg in 2021.

Data center – illustrative photo. Image credit: kewl via Pixabay, free license

The dispute over where Meta stores its data has been ongoing for ten years, starting with a legal challenge initiated by Austrian privacy advocate Max Schrems. The challenge raised concerns about the risk of unethical and illegal data use following revelations made by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

In response to the ruling, Meta released a statement expressing its intention to appeal, contesting the “unjustified and unnecessary fine” and cautioning that it sets a dangerous precedent for numerous other companies. Additionally, the company plans to seek a legal stay against the suspension orders.

Meta emphasized that without the ability to transfer data across borders, there is a risk of dividing the internet into separate national and regional domains. They expressed their concerns regarding this fragmentation.

In March, the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) stated that EU and U.S. officials were hopeful that a new data protection framework, agreed upon by Brussels and Washington in March 2022, could be ready by July.

The European Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe, invalidated the two previous data transfer agreements due to concerns about U.S. surveillance practices.

Max Schrems expressed doubt that Meta’s reliance on the new agreement for future data transfers would provide a lasting solution. He stated that unless U.S. surveillance laws were addressed, Meta would likely be required to store EU data within the EU.

Meta has been fined a total of 2.5 billion euros for violations under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in 2018.

The Irish regulator has imposed higher fines on Meta than on any other tech company and currently has ten ongoing investigations into various platforms of the social media conglomerate.

Written by Alius Noreika