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Dublin (AFP) – US social media giant Meta, owner of Facebook, was fined 390 million euros on Wednesday for breaching European data protection regulations, the Irish regulator, acting on behalf of the European Union, announced.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said in a statement that Meta breached “its transparency obligations” and used an erroneous legal basis “for its processing of personal data for the purposes of personalized advertising.”
This sanction is a consequence of the adoption of three binding decisions by the European data protection committee at the beginning of December.
The first two referred to offenses related to Facebook (for which the fine amounts to 210 million euros, about 222 million dollars) and Instagram (for 180 million euros, about 190 million dollars).
The third, relating to WhatsApp, was subsequently notified to the DPC and its application will be decided next week.
The American company has its European headquarters in the Republic of Ireland, so it is up to the Irish regulator to apply the sanctions.
The DPC already fined the Californian giant 405 million euros in September for failures in the processing of minors’ data, and 265 million in November for not sufficiently protecting the data of its users.
Privacy advocacy group Noyb, which brought the three complaints against Meta, accused the group of reinterpreting consent “as a mere civil law contract,” which does not allow opting out of targeted advertising.
BREAKING: EU rules that Facebook and Instagram have been illegally forcing users to share their personal data for use by advertisers. Meta is ordered to pay a $414 million fine and will likely be forced to let users choose whether they want their data used for targeting.
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) January 4, 2023
In October 2021, the Irish authority initially proposed a draft decision validating the legal basis used by Facebook and suggesting a fine of between €26 million and €36 million for lack of transparency.
But the regulatory bodies of several countries disagreed as they considered the penalty too low and asked the European committee to resolve the dispute.
Noyb applauded Wednesday’s decision, considering that it will force Meta to implement a “yes/no consent option” for the use of its users’ personal data for personalized advertising.
Meta was “disappointed” by the decision and expressed its intention to appeal “both the fund and the fines” in a statement transmitted to the AFP news agency.
“The debate on the legal basis for the processing of personal data has been open for some time and companies face a lack of regulatory certainty on this issue,” the group said.
“These decisions do not prevent targeted or personalized advertising” and “advertisers can continue to use our platforms to reach potential customers, grow their business and create new markets,” he added.
