Facebook owner Meta has been fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for transferring EU user data to the United States in breach of a previous court ruling, Ireland’s regulator announced Monday, AFP reports.
The Irish Data Protection Commission, which acts on behalf of the European Union, said the European Data Protection Board had ordered it to collect “an administrative fine in the amount of 1.2 billion euros”.
Meta said it would appeal the decision.
The fine is the largest ever levied under Europe’s signature data privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Meta’s infringement is “very serious since it concerns transfers that are systematic, repetitive and continuous,” said Andrea Jelinek, chair of the European Data Protection Board.
“Facebook has millions of users in Europe, so the volume of personal data transferred is massive. The unprecedented fine is a strong signal to organizations that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences,” she added.
Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, said it would appeal the ruling, including the fine. There would be no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe, it added.
“The ability for data to be transferred across borders is fundamental to how the global open internet works,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, and Jennifer Newstead, the company’s chief legal officer, said in a statement. (CNN/AFP)
