Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta Platforms €805 million ($887 million) for accessing Android users’ photos and videos without their specific consent. The penalty, announced on Saturday stems from a Facebook gallery-suggestion feature and gives the company 60 days to disable it by default.
“We strongly disagree with the assessment of the facts, its application of the law, and the disproportionate level of the fine,” a Meta spokesperson told the BBC.
Why the Garante Fined Meta
The penalty was issued by Italy’s data privacy authority, Garante per la protezione dei dati personali. An investigation began in July 2025 after a complaint from the Centro Tutela Consumatori Utenti di Bolzano.
The watchdog found that the Facebook app for Android read photographs, videos, and metadata stored on phones without proper notification or specific consent. This violated Article 122 of Italy’s Privacy Code, which implements the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive.
The dispute centers on a feature available since 2023 named “Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook”. The function suggests media from a phone gallery as ideas for posts while browsing. Regulators determined that Facebook requested access through a single app-wide authorization preceded by a generic notice.
Users remained unaware they were authorizing gallery suggestions. The feature was preset as active.
During the regulatory proceedings, Meta argued that the matter should fall under the responsibility of Ireland’s Data Protection Commission pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation’s one-stop-shop framework. Meta Platforms Ireland Limited serves as the company’s European headquarters in Dublin. The Italian watchdog rejected this jurisdictional argument.
The authority established its authority directly under the ePrivacy directive because the rules governing personal smartphone storage lack a centralized one-stop-shop mechanism.
How the €805 Million Penalty Was Calculated
The authority said that about 20 million Android users in Italy were affected by the feature. In determining the size of the sanction, the regulator cited “the high number of people affected” and said that the infringement “is still ongoing for those who have not updated the app and for those who have already given their consent to the system,” as reported by BBC News.
The watchdog also cited “Meta’s lack of co-operation” during the audit and said that an earlier violation resulting in a 2019 fine contributed to the decision. The €805 million amount equals roughly 0.47 percent of Meta’s global revenue, based on an annual turnover of $201 billion in 2025.
The regulator also said that its inquiry did not investigate whether the accessed photos and videos were used to train artificial intelligence models, a practice that Meta has explicitly denied.
By comparison, Italy’s enforcement history includes other massive regulatory actions against major technology companies. In 2021, Amazon was penalized more than €1.1 billion for breaching competition law, a sum that was later reduced to €752 million on appeal.
Meta Must Disable Gallery-Suggestions by Default in Italy
Under the order, Meta has 60 days to disable the gallery-suggestions feature by default for users in Italy and must require separate, explicit consent before any gallery access is granted. The company is required to clearly explain the purpose of the feature, the gallery access involved, and how to disable it. Meta must submit compliance reports at the 30-day and 90-day marks.
The feature must stay deactivated by default—applying the requirement even to users who previously granted authorization. Meta said that it intends to appeal the decision handed down by the Garante.
“We strongly disagree with the assessment of the facts, its application of the law, and the disproportionate level of the fine,” Meta told the BBC, adding that the feature is straightforward and that users must give permission on their device before it can operate, and they can change this permission at any time via their settings.