DUBLIN (Reuters) – Meta, parent company of Facebook, has been fined a record 1.2 billion euros by Ireland’s data protection authority (DPC) over the transfer of information of European users to the United States.
The fine, which is accompanied by a period of five months to cease the transfer of data to the United States, exceeds that of 746 million euros imposed on Amazon in Luxembourg in 2021, indicates the DPC in a press release.
For his part, Meta indicated in a press release that he wanted to appeal the decision, including the “unjustified and unnecessary” fine, by asking for a stay of the execution of the orders in court.
The long-running dispute over where Facebook stores its data began a decade ago, after Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems filed a lawsuit over the risk of spying after the Edward Snowden’s revelations about massive electronic surveillance programs set up by the United States.
Meta said last month it was waiting for a new legal framework to be in place on the secure transfer of European Union (EU) citizens’ personal data to the United States, before having to suspend transfers.
According to a spokesperson for the European Commission, the new data protection framework between the EU and the US government, which reached an agreement in principle in March 2022, should be finalized by the summer.
(Reporting Padraic Halpin; Lina Golovnya, editing by Kate Entringer)
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