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Cybersecurity
TechPolicy

EU slaps Facebook owner Meta Platforms with record US$1.3 billion fine over US data transfers

  • EU regulators said Meta failed to protect personal information from the prying eyes of American security services
  • Meta’s fine eclipses an US$806 million EU privacy penalty previously doled out to Amazon.com

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On top of the fine, Meta Platforms was given five months to “suspend any future transfer of personal data to the US” and six months to stop “the unlawful processing, including storage, in the US” of transferred personal EU data. Photo: Shutterstock
Bloomberg
Facebook owner Meta Platforms was hit by a record €1.2 billion (US$1.3 billion) European Union privacy fine and given a deadline to stop shipping users’ data to the US after regulators said it failed to protect personal information from the prying eyes of American security services.
The social network giant’s continued data transfers to the US did not address “the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of people whose data was being transferred across the Atlantic, according to a decision by the Irish Data Protection Commission announced on Monday.
On top of the fine, which eclipses a €746 million EU privacy penalty previously doled out to Amazon.com, Meta was given five months to “suspend any future transfer of personal data to the US” and six months to stop “the unlawful processing, including storage, in the US” of transferred personal EU data.

A data-transfers ban for Meta was widely expected and once prompted the US firm to threaten a total withdrawal from the EU. But its impact has now been muted by the transition phase given in the decision and the prospect of a new EU-US data flows agreement that could already be operational by the middle of this year.

The record fine imposed on Meta Platforms coincides with the fifth anniversary of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, widely seen as the world’s benchmark for privacy. Image: Shutterstock
The record fine imposed on Meta Platforms coincides with the fifth anniversary of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, widely seen as the world’s benchmark for privacy. Image: Shutterstock

Monday’s decision is the latest round in a long—running saga that eventually saw Facebook and thousands of other companies plunged into a legal vacuum. In 2020, the EU’s top court annulled an EU-US pact regulating transatlantic data flows over fears citizens’ data was not safe once it arrived on US servers.

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