Meta receives record fine of €1,2 billion for violating data rules in Europe

Meta, which intends to appeal, was condemned for having “continued the transfer of personal data” of Facebook users from the European Economic Area to the United States, explained the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).

The commission acts on behalf of the European Union (EU) to monitor compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), because the American group's European headquarters is in Ireland.

The decision also requires Meta to “suspend all transfers of personal data to the United States within five months” after being notified of the decision and to comply with the GDPR within six months, the DPC added.

The fine, the largest ever imposed by a data protection regulatory agency in Europe, is the result of an investigation that began in 2020.

Meta, however, considers it “unjustifiable and unnecessary” and will go to court to try to suspend the fine, the social media giant said in a statement.

“Thousands of companies and organizations depend on the ability to transfer data between the EU and the United States. There is a fundamental US government legal conflict over data access and European privacy rights,” the California-based company added.

Third fine in 2023

Meta expects the US and EU to adopt a new legal framework for the transfer of personal data in the coming months, following an agreement in principle reached last year.

This is the third fine against the Target in the EU since the beginning of 2023 and the fourth in six months.

In January, the DPC announced a fine of almost 400 million euros (2,15 billion reais) for infractions in the use of personal data for advertising purposes in its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp applications. In March, the fine was €5,5 million (R$29,6 million) for violating the GDPR with the WhatsApp messaging service.

Since then, Meta haspromeyours to change its conditions of use in Europe in order to continue collecting and processing the personal data of its European users.

The punishments take place in a context of increased controls and legal proceedings in the European Union, as well as in the United States, against the group of companies known as GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), and the measures recently adopted against the Chinese TikTok.

In 2021, Amazon was fined 746 million euros (4 billion reais) in Luxembourg for violating the GDPR.

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