Meta accrues $2.8 billion in GDPR fines

Meta and its affiliated subsidiaries have been charged a total of $2.8 billion in GDPR fines over the past four years.

According to data gathered by finance publication Finbold, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is one of the most affected entities when it comes to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Its largest fine to date totals up to $1.3 billion and was imposed on Meta Platform Ireland Limited in May last year for insufficient legal basis for data processing.

This ruling only applied to Facebook — at the time, the EU cautioned Meta for transferring Facebook users’ data to US servers, claiming that it was not sufficiently protected from American spy agencies.

Meta Platforms also saw over $440 million in one penalty in 2022, and Meta Ireland received a penalty worth over $425 million in January 2023.

According to the report, the fines levied on Meta were mainly based on the requirement for companies to store data in the country where it is collected, rather than permitting unrestricted movement to global data centres.

Finbold also noted that imposing fines on Meta does not necessary mean that the social media giant will pay them, as the company currently has pending appeals. Successful appeals may lead to a reduction or complete elimination of the fines.

While Meta holds the top place for the single largest fine ever issued by GDPR, other big tech brands and their subsidiaries such as Amazon (over $780m), TikTok ($377m), and Google (one $99m, another $66m) all take place in the top 10 largest fines too.

In November 2022, Ireland’s own privacy watchdog issued Meta a fine of €265m after failing to prevent hackers from stealing Facebook user data.  Plus, at the beginning of last year, the same regulator fined Meta €390m for “forcing” users to accept targeted ads.