Current:Home > MarketsEuropean watchdog fines Meta $1.3 billion over privacy violations -ForexStream
European watchdog fines Meta $1.3 billion over privacy violations
View
Date:2025-04-16 14:02:39
Tech giant Meta must pay a record 1.2 billion euros — nearly $1.3 billion — for breaching European Union privacy laws.
Meta, which owns Facebook, had continued to transfer user data from countries in the European Union and the European Economic Area to the United States despite being suspended from doing so in 2021, an investigation by Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) found.
The unprecedented penalty from the European Data Protection Board, announced on Monday, is intended to send a strong signal to organizations "that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences," the regulator's chair, Andrea Jelinek, said in a statement.
Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, plans to appeal the ruling and will seek to suspend the case from proceeding in court.
"This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and U.S.," President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement.
The privacy battle between Meta and EU courts began when an Austrian privacy activist won a decade-long lawsuit to invalidate a U.S.-E.U. data-moving pact.
Known as Privacy Shield, that agreement had allowed Facebook and other companies to transfer data between the two regions. It was struck down in 2020.
The DPC has also ordered Meta suspend all future data transfers within the next five months and make compliant all European data currently stored in the U.S. within the next six months. That's information including photos, friend connections, direct messages and data collected for targeted advertising.
The U.S. and the EU are currently negotiating a new data-moving agreement, called the Data Privacy Framework, and they are expected to reach a deal this summer. If that agreement is inked before the DPC's deadlines expire, "services can continue as they do today without any disruption or impact on users," Meta said in its statement.
DPC's fine on Meta is the largest penalty imposed by a European regulator on a tech company since the EU slapped Amazon with a 746 million euro fine in 2021.
The European Court of Justice has said the risk of U.S. snooping violates the fundamental rights of European users. And regulators say Meta has failed to sufficiently protect data from American spy agencies and advertisers.
There is currently no disruption to Facebook in Europe, Meta said in the statement.
veryGood! (85)
Related
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- Saoirse Ronan Shares Rare Insight Into Relationship With Husband Jack Lowden
- On the road: Plenty of NBA teams mixing the grind of training camp with resort life
- Jersey Shore's Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Shares Daughter's Gut-Wrenching Reaction to His 2021 Legal Trouble
- Where will Elmo go? HBO moves away from 'Sesame Street'
- Garth Brooks Returns to Las Vegas Stage Amid Sexual Assault Allegations
- Some California stem cell clinics use unproven therapies. A new court ruling cracks down
- Nevada politician guilty of using $70,000 meant for statue of slain officer for personal costs
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- Collapse of national security elites’ cyber firm leaves bitter wake
Ranking
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- Progressive prosecutors in Georgia faced backlash from the start. They say it’s all politics.
- College sports ‘fraternity’ jumping in to help athletes from schools impacted by Hurricane Helene
- Olympian Suni Lee Calls Out MyKayla Skinner's Put Down to Gymnastics Team
- The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
- Californians’ crime concerns put pressure on criminal justice reform and progressive DAs
- 'Nation has your back,' President Biden says to Hurricane Helene victims | The Excerpt
- Jobs report is likely to show another month of modest but steady hiring gains
Recommendation
Sam Taylor
SEC, Big Ten moving closer to taking their college football ball home and making billions
Black man details alleged beating at the hands of a white supremacist group in Boston
Nibi the ‘diva’ beaver to stay at rescue center, Massachusetts governor decides
Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
'Get out of here or die': Asheville man describes being trapped under bridge during Helene
6 migrants from Egypt, Peru and Honduras die near Guatemalan border after Mexican soldiers open fire
'It's going to die': California officer spends day off rescuing puppy trapped down well