Meta hit with record $1.3 billion fine over data transfers
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[May 22, 2023] By
Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN (Reuters) -Meta was hit with a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3
billion) fine by its lead European Union privacy regulator over its
handling of user information and given five months to stop transferring
users' data to the United States.
The fine, imposed by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), came
after Meta continued to transfer data beyond a 2020 EU court ruling that
invalidated an EU-U.S. data transfer pact. It tops the previous record
EU privacy fine of 746 million euros handed by Luxembourg to Amazon.com
Inc in 2021.
The battle over where Meta's Facebook stores its data began a decade ago
after Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems brought a legal challenge
over the risk of U.S. snooping in light of disclosures by former U.S.
National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Meta said in a statement that it will appeal the ruling, including the
"unjustified and unnecessary fine that "sets a dangerous precedent for
countless other companies." It will also seek a stay of the suspension
orders through the courts.
The social media giant reiterated that it expected a new pact
facilitating the safe transfer of EU citizens' personal data to the
United States would be fully implemented before it has to suspend
transfers.
That would mean its previous warning that a stoppage could force it to
suspend Facebook services in Europe would not come to pass.
"Without the ability to transfer data across borders, the internet risks
being carved up into national and regional silos," Meta said.
The DPC said in March that EU and U.S. officials hoped that the new data
protection framework - agreed by Brussels and Washington in March 2022 -
may be ready by July.
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A 3D printed Facebook's new rebrand logo
Meta and Facebook logo are placed on laptop keyboard in this
illustration taken on November 2, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Europe's top court, the European Court of Justice, threw out the two
previous pacts over concerns about U.S. surveillance.
Schrems, the Austrian privacy campaigner, said Meta's plans to rely
on the new deal for transfers going forward was unlikely to be a
permanent fix.
"In my view, the new deal has maybe a 10% chance of not being killed
by the CJEU (EU Court of Justice). Unless U.S. surveillance laws
gets fixed, Meta will likely have to keep EU data in the EU," he
said in a statement.
The Irish watchdog, which is the lead EU regulator for many of the
world's top technology companies because of the location of their
European headquarters in Ireland, has said the suspension order
could create a precedent for other firms.
It has now fined Meta a total of 2.5 billion euros for breaches
under the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation's (GDPR),
introduced in 2018.
The DPC said that it did not initially propose adding a fine to the
suspension order, but that four other EU supervising authorities
disagreed and the record fine was included after a ruling by the
European Data Protection Board (EDPB).
The Irish regulator has fined Meta more than any other tech firm and
has 10 other inquiries open into the social media group's platforms.
($1 = 0.9084 euros)
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Gerry Doyle and Sharon
Singleton)
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