Ireland’s Data Protection Commission announced on Monday that it is fining Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, €1,200m for breaching European privacy rules. The organisation, which is responsible for applying EU data protection laws to the US giant since its European headquarters is in Dublin, notes that Meta did not protect Europeans’ information from surveillance practices by US security agencies.
This is the largest sanction imposed under the European General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD) and comes into effect on May 25, the day before the fifth anniversary of its entry into force. They are almost €500 million more than those imposed on Amazon in 2021, also for privacy reasons. The Irish authority also orders Meta to suspend any future transfers of personal data to the US for five months.
The amount of the fine is due to the fact that Meta has continued for almost three years a practice that was declared illegal by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in July 2020. The Magistrates of the High Community Court then decided. that the transfer of Europeans’ personal information by digital multinationals such as Meta (then called Facebook) violates Community law. The reason is that once the data reaches the US, it becomes available to its security agencies without the same judicial safeguards that this type of investigation would have in the EU.
elDiario.es contacted Meta to include their reaction to the fine in this information. The company says it will appeal both the sentence and the fine and is seeking a stay of the order in court. He also adds that there will be no “immediate disruption” of Facebook in Europe. This clarification on the availability of its services on the continent comes after it informed its shareholders last year of the possibility of doing so if European privacy agencies accept the decision issued by Ireland this Monday.
Source: El Diario
