Meta to face record EU fine for Facebook data transfer to US

Meta Platforms Inc. is about to face a record European Union privacy fine due to data transfer to the US, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

The two sources further added that the penalty will be higher than the previous record of Amazon’s $821.20 million fine.

EU regulators led by Helen Dixon, Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, are finalising a ban on the legal tool used by Facebook to transfer European user data.

This step came due to concerns that the U.S. intelligence agencies might access the information through the transferred data.

In April, the EU regulators said that the Irish DPC had one month to make an order blocking Facebook’s transatlantic data flows, it could be in place by mid-May.

Europe’s highest court ruled in 2020 that an EU-U.S. data transfer agreement is invalid, as a result of surveillance concerns.

Meta warned last year that an order to ban the mechanism it uses for data transfer from Europe to the U.S. could force the company to suspend Facebook services in Europe.