Meta has been hit with a record $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) fine by European Union regulators for mishandling Facebook user information. The Facebook parent company has also been ordered to end the transfer of data from users in the EU to the United States.
The record fine was issued by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which regulates Facebook across the EU. The fine came after regulators ruled that the social network’s data transfers to the U.S. “did not address the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of EU users and violated General Data Protection Regulation.
The fine is the largest one ever imposed under the EU’s GDPR privacy law. Previously, the record was a €746 million fine imposed on Amazon in 2021 for similar types of privacy violations.
Meta has been given five months to suspend transfers of personal data to the U.S., and six months to end “the unlawful processing, including storage, in the U.S.” of transferred personal data. Instagram and WhatsApp, which Meta also owns, are exempt from the order.
A previous mechanism to legally transfer personal data between the U.S. and the EU, known as the “Privacy Shield” pact, was struck down by the EU’s top court in 2020. The regulator alleged that Meta infringed on the EU’s GDPR laws when it continued to transfer personal data to the U.S. after 2020 despite the court ruling.
The issue has so far stretched over a decade, following a legal challenge brought by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems against Facebook in 2013. Schrem’s concerns resulted from Edward Snowden’s revelations about EU user data not being sufficiently protected from U.S. intelligence agencies when transferred across the Atlantic.
Responding to the decision in a blog post, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president of global affairs said “This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and U.S.”
Clegg continued, saying, “We will appeal the ruling, including the unjustified and unnecessary fine, and seek a stay of the orders through the courts.”
