2023-05-22 12:09:01
Meta was fined a record 1.2 billion euros on Monday (May 22) by the Irish regulator for breaching European data protection rules (GDPR) with its social network Facebook.
Meta, who intends to appeal, is sentenced for having “continued to transfer personal data” of users from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the United States in violation of European rules on the subject, said the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), which acts on behalf of the European Union .
Meta must also “suspend any transfer of personal data to the United States within five months” following notification of this decision. The company will also have to comply with the GDPR within six months, added the DPC.
A fine described by Meta as “unjustified and unnecessary”
This sanction – the highest imposed by a data protection regulator in Europe, the DPC said – is the result of an investigation launched in 2020. Meta describes the fine as“unjustified and unnecessary” and will seek legal action for its suspension, the social media giant immediately reacted.
“Thousands of businesses and organizations rely on the ability to transfer data between the EU and the US” et “there is a fundamental conflict of rights between US government rules on data access and European privacy rights”continues the Californian giant.
Meta hopes to see the United States and the European Union adopt during the summer a new legal framework for the transfer of personal data, in the wake of an agreement in principle adopted last year.
Fourth fine in six months
This is the third fine imposed on Meta since the beginning of the year in the EU, and the fourth in six months.
In January, the DPC had heavily sanctioned the group to pay nearly 400 million euros for offenses on the use of personal data for advertising purposes targeting its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp applications. Then, in March, the company was fined another 5.5 million euros for violating the GDPR with its WhatsApp messaging.
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