Breach of EU data protection rules: Meta has to pay record fine in Ireland
The Irish data protection authority has ordered Meta to pay a fine for Facebook's violations of the European Data Protection Regulation. The US company had illegally transferred user data from the EU to the USA.
As the Irish data protection authority DPC announced on Tuesday, the Facebook parent company Meta is to pay a record-high fine for breaches of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It amounts to 1.2 billion dollars. This is significantly more than the 746 million US dollar fine that Luxembourg imposed on Amazon in 2021.
The fine against Meta is the result of a complaint by Austrian data protection activist Max Schrems. He had successfully brought an action before the European Court of Justice against the provisions of the "Privacy Shield" agreement between the EU and the USA. The agreement states that the USA receives personal data from citizens of EU countries and the European Economic Area as well as Switzerland - and vice versa. The agreement has been heavily criticised from the outset: The personal data of EU citizens was not sufficiently protected as a result; specifically, they were less well protected than is stated in the GDPR.
Can Meta avoid the record fine?
The fine was imposed by the Irish data protection authority after a long tug-of-war with the EU data protection commissioner. Originally, the Irish envisaged a more lenient penalty. Meta has its European headquarters in Ireland. The authority was ultimately obliged by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to impose a fine on the social network. Max Schrems is delighted. "We are happy about this decision after ten years of legal disputes", he said. "The fine could have been much higher, as the maximum fine is over 4 billion and Meta knowingly violated the GDPR for ten years in order to make a profit."
Meta immediately announced that it would appeal against the decision and the fine. The company believes it has been unfairly pilloried. The DPC's decision was "flawed and unjustified". A meta-statement reads: "This is not about one company's data protection practices - there is a fundamental legal conflict between the US government's rules on access to data and European data protection laws, which policymakers are expected to resolve this summer."
Schrems does not believe, however, that Meta will be able to avoid paying the fine. Even if the company appeals, there is "no real chance of materially changing this decision", says the activist. Previous violations of the law could not be remedied by a new agreement currently being discussed between the EU and the USA.
Cover photo: Master Tux / Pixabay
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