Another Day, Another 390m Euros for Meta

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Facebook parent Meta EUR 390m for breaking EU privacy rules, following the $725m settlement revealed in a US lawsuit this week and with a UK case looming at the end of the month.

The DPC, which represents the EU in such cases because Meta's European HQ is in the Republic, imposed the fine after the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) found that the company had acted unlawfully in its method of seeking permission from users to collect their personal data for advertising purposes. Meta does not at present allow users to opt in for personal data use, in line with the bloc's GDPR legislation, and the EDPB has ruled that it must now move to doing so within three months, rejecting Meta's claim that its personal data use was covered by contractual law.

The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal will hear the next lawsuit on 30th January, and consider the rights of around 44m British Facebook users between 2016 and 2019, in the light of the company's alleged abuse of its market dominance - a somewhat different angle to the other two cases.

The Irish / EU fine is equivalent to $411m or £346m at today's rates, whereas Meta's ad revenue from Europe is likely to have topped $25bn in 2022, despite a fall in its ad market share. A spokesman for the company told the Wall Street Journal 'We strongly believe our approach respects GDPR, and we're therefore disappointed by these decisions'.

Web site: www.dataprotection.ie .