Meta hit by record 1.2 billion euro fine by EU over U.S. data transfers

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Meta was hit on Monday with a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) fine by its lead privacy regulator in the European Union for 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) concerned Meta’s continued transferring of personal data and topped the previous 746 million euro record EU privacy fine by Luxembourg on Amazon.com Inc in 2021, according to a DPC statement.

The U.S and EU last year “in principle” agreed to a new framework for cross-border data transfers. However, the new pact has not yet come into effect.

The Irish Data Protection Commission that overseas Meta operations in the EU alleged that the company infringed the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when it continued to send the personal data of European citizens to the U.S.

GDPR is the EU’s landmark data protection regulation that governs firms active in the bloc. It came into effect in 2018.

The 1.2 billion euro penalty for Meta is the highest sum that any company has been fined for breaching GDPR. The previous largest fine was a 746 million euros charge for e-commerce giant Amazon for breaching GDPR in 2021.