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Meta Slapped With Biggest Fine in EU History Over U.S. Data Transfers

The Facebook owner will have to cough up $1.3 billion.

Meta has been fined $1.3 billion by the European Union’s privacy regulators for sending user data to the U.S., according to a report. The fine—the largest ever issued to a Big Tech company by the EU over privacy violations—was announced by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) on Monday. In a news release, the DPC said that it had found that Facebook breached safeguarding requirements mandated for data transfers from the EU to the U.S., and that the arrangements Facebook used for the transfers “did not address the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects.” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in a statement that the company is “disappointed to have been singled out when using the same legal mechanism as thousands of other companies looking to provide services in Europe.” The fine eclipses the EU’s previous record of about $806 million imposed on Amazon in Luxembourg two years ago over allegations of privacy violations connected to the company’s advertising business.