Ireland fines Meta 1.2 billion for violating data privacy regulations

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has imposed a 1.2 billion fine to the platform Target for not respecting the data privacy of the users of Facebookone of his social networks.

It is the largest financial penalty imposed in the European Union (EU) on a multinational for violations related to data protection laws, after the €746 million fine imposed on Amazon in 2021.

The DPC has communicated the order issued to Meta to, within a maximum period of five months, suspend the transfer of personal user data from the EU to the United States.

Conflict of laws between Europe and the United States.

The investigation, which began in 2020, found that the multinational had allegedly violated the Article 46 of the General Data Protection Regulation, and the Court of Justice of the European Union ordered the immediate halt of the data transfer.

From the multinational, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, and the company’s chief legal officer, Jennifer Newstead, have assured that the decision does not imply an immediate interruption of Facebook in Europe and have announced that the company will appeal the sentence, including the fine “unjustified and unnecessary“, requesting the suspension of the orders through judicial channels.

“It is not about a company’s privacy practices: there is a fundamental conflict of laws between U.S. government rules on data access and European privacy rights, which lawmakers are expected to resolve in the summer,” they argue.

They further warn that “The DPC initially acknowledged that Meta had continued its EU-U.S. data transfers in good faith, and that a fine would be unnecessary and disproportionate (…) This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless companies that transfer data between the EU and the U.S.”

In this regard, they have warned that without the ability to transfer data across borders, The Internet runs the risk of splitting into silos. national and regional silos, restricting the global economy and leaving citizens of different countries unable to access many shared services, so providing a sound legal basis for data transfer between the EU and the U.S. has been a political priority on both sides of the Atlantic for many years.