This is the largest fine demanded from a company by the European Union since the implementation of GDPR. In 2020, the Old Continent announces the cancellation of the Privacy Shield (“data protection shield”), which allows the United States and American companies to collect data from European users. Meta then had to stop all data transfers within a year.
Of course, an ultimatum that is not respected will now cost Mark Zuckerberg’s group dearly. On Monday, May 22, the Irish regulator announced it had issued a record fine. 1.2 billion euros to the company. As such, it’s well ahead of what’s claimed for 746m euros from Amazon, the previous holder of the title. Ironically, Meta also occupies the rest of the top 5, as this chart from Politico shows.
Meta suffers largest penalty in GDPR history
Meta now has 5 months to stop all data transfers to the United States, then an additional 6 months to end this period. “illegal use, including storage” these. Thus, we are getting closer to the possibility that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will be completely deleted from Old Content. Indeed, Meta has already announced that it may have to leave Europe unless there is a concrete alternative to Pivacy Shield.
“This decision is wrong, unfair and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless companies that transfer data between the EU and the US.”, said Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of global affairs and chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead. For its part, the Max Schrems event warns: “If US surveillance laws don’t change, Meta will have to fundamentally reconfigure their systems”.
Source : Policy
