Meta has been fined a record $1.3 billion by the European Union privacy regulator for its misuse of user information and given five months to cease transmitting user data to the United States.
Meta continued to transfer data after a 2020 EU court decision that invalidated an EU-U.S. data transfer agreement, prompting the fine from Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC).
The ruling, as well as the “unjustified and unnecessary fine” that “sets a dangerous precedent for countless other companies,” will be appealed, according to a statement from Meta. Additionally, it will ask the courts to halt the suspension orders.
Meta reaffirmed its expectation that a new agreement permitting the secure transfer of personal data of EU individuals to the United States would be fully implemented before it had to halt transfers.
If that’s the case, it means the company won’t have to follow through on its earlier warning to cease Facebook services in Europe due to a stoppage.
Without the cross-border transfer of information, the internet faces the risk of being carved up into regional and national silos, according to Meta.
The European Court of Justice rejected the two earlier agreements because of privacy concerns over U.S. monitoring.
The suspension decision might set a precedent for other businesses, according to the Irish watchdog, which serves as the primary EU regulator for many of the largest technology companies in the world due to the fact that Ireland is where their European headquarters are located.
As of right now, Meta has been penalized a total of 2.5 billion euros for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was put into effect by the EU in 2018.
Meta has received the largest penalties of any internet company from the Irish regulator, which also has 10 open investigations into the platforms used by the social media company.
This penalty is far higher than the previous EU privacy record penalty of 746 million euros that was issued by Luxembourg to Amazon in 2021.
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