European privacy regulators have imposed a fine of 1.3 billion dollars on Meta Platforms, the equivalent of 1.2 billion euros. Facebook’s parent company is said to have forwarded user data to the United States.
That writes The Wall Street Journal, based on insiders. The fine is expected to be announced later today.
Reuters news agency reported last week based on sources that Meta would face a record fine. The regulators of the European Union want it to be legally impossible for Facebook to send European user data to the US. They fear that these could fall into the hands of American intelligence services.
Past fines
At the beginning of this year, Meta was already fined 390 million euros by the Irish privacy regulator Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC). The company received that penalty for the way user data is used for personalized advertising. That was not the first fine. For example, in September the DPC imposed a fine of 405 million euros on Meta subsidiary Instagram and in November there was already a fine of 265 million euros for Meta.
Under European data law, companies can be investigated by the privacy watchdog of the country where they have their European headquarters. Meta has a European headquarters in Ireland.
