Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has been fined €1.2bn (US$1.3bn) and ordered to stop transferring user data from Europe to the US, a move it previously warned could lead to Facebook’s closure on the continent.
Handed out by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the fine is the largest to be issued over privacy violations in the EU, towering over the existing record of €746mln handed to Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) in 2021.
The commission ruled that Meta had failed to put safeguards in place to prevent EU user data being accessed by intelligence agencies in the US, where protection laws are less strict.
Meta will now have five months to “suspend future transfer” of EU user data across the Atlantic and six months to stop processing information already sent.
Mark Zuckerberg’s tech giant had warned that without standard contractual clauses, under which data is transferred, “significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram” may no longer be offered in Europe.
Meta global affairs president Nick Clegg said the firm was “disappointed to have been singled out when using the same legal mechanism as thousands of other companies”.
He added: “This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and US.”
Previous fines
Meta has frequently made headlines over fines received in recent years, having already had a run-in with the Irish regulator in 2023.
Though Meta’s €1.2bn is indeed the largest ever over European general data protection regulations (GDPR), it is eclipsed by the US$5bn paid to resolve a Federal Trade Commission probe in 2019.
Alongside the mammoth fine, Meta also agreed to pay US$100mln to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and US$725mln to plaintiffs in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw it accused of allowing third parties to access millions of users’ data.
In terms of GDPR issues, Meta subsidiaries Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have received seven of the largest 10 fines ever dealt by the EU over data violations.
Combined, these add up US$2.7bn and have all been issued since 2021, according to Statista data.
Two of these fines, issued to Facebook and Instagram respectively late last year, related to leaks of user data and Meta allowing teenagers' personal details to be publicly displayed.
What next?
Meta has already confirmed Monday’s fine will be appealed, with the tech giant also seeking a stay order to temporarily halt court proceedings.
Services will continue to run, Meta added, despite previous warnings that Instagram and Facebook could be shut down in Europe.
Discussions between the EU and US over a new data privacy network are ongoing and could be finalised as early as this summer, with Joe Biden having signed an executive order over the latter’s commitment to the new rules in October.
Talks follow an EU ruling in 2020 that effectively dismissed the existing agreement with the US over fears of surveillance by government officials across the Atlantic.