Meta fined $1.3 billion by EU for sending user data to US: Report
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Synopsis
The Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc was hit with a record fine amounting to $1.3 billion by European Union privacy regulators for sending user data to the United States.
Meta has been hit with a record-breaking $1.3 billion fine (€1.2 billion) by EU data regulators, and ordered to stop transferring the Facebook data of EU citizens to the US. As a result of whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations regarding US mass surveillance programmes in 2013, EU judges have expressed concern that such data transfers subject EU residents to privacy infringement.
The Data Protection Commission (DPC) of Ireland issued the decision, noting that the GDPR had been broken and that the present legislative framework for data transfers to the US "did not address the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms" of Facebook's EU users. The penalty is more than the previous record set by the EU, which was €746 million assessed against Amazon in 2021 for identical privacy infractions.
Meta said in a statement that it will appeal the ruling, including the “unjustified and unnecessary fine", and seek a stay of the orders through the courts.
A decade ago, Austrian privacy advocate Max Schrems filed a lawsuit about the possibility of US surveillance in light of revelations made by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, sparking the ongoing dispute over where Facebook maintains its data.
Last month, Meta stated that it anticipated a new agreement permitting the secure transfer of personal data of EU individuals to the United States will be completely implemented before it had to halt transfers.
Officials have said the new data protection framework - agreed by the European Union and US government in March 2022 - may be ready by July, but Meta also cautioned that there is a chance it might not be ready in time.
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