Record fine for Facebook
1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) fined for its handling of user information
Marcus Stuart (MS)May 9, 2025
Meta has been fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by the European Data Protection Authority over its handling of user information. The company has five months to stop transferring user data to the United States.
The fine, imposed by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), came after Meta continued to transfer data despite a 2020 EU court ruling that invalidated an EU-US data transfer pact. It surpasses the previous record fine of €746 million imposed by Luxembourg on Amazon.com Inc. in 2021.
The dispute over where Meta's Facebook stores its data began a decade ago when Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems filed suit over the threat of U.S. spying. This came against the backdrop of revelations by former U.S. NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Meta said in a statement that it will appeal the ruling, including the "unjustified and unnecessary penalty" that sets "a dangerous precedent for countless other companies." The company will also seek to have the suspension orders stayed in court.
The social media giant stressed that it expects a new pact allowing for the secure transfer of personal data of EU citizens to the U.S. to be fully implemented before it has to suspend the transfers.
That would mean that the previous warning that a disruption could lead to Facebook services in Europe having to be suspended would not come to pass.
"Without the ability to transfer data across borders, there is a risk that the Internet will be divided into national and regional silos," Meta said.
The DPC said in March that EU and U.S. officials hoped the new data protection framework - agreed between Brussels and Washington in March 2022 - could be ready by July.
Europe's top court, the European Court of Justice, rejected the two previous agreements over concerns about U.S. surveillance.
Schrems, the Austrian privacy activist, said Meta's plans to rely on the new agreement for future transfers are unlikely to be a permanent solution.
"In my opinion, the new agreement has maybe a 10 percent chance of not being overturned by the ECJ (European Court of Justice). Unless U.S. surveillance laws are fixed, Meta will likely have to keep EU data in the EU," he said in a statement.
The Irish regulator, which is the leading EU regulator because of the location of the European headquarters of many of the world's leading technology companies in Ireland, has said the suspension order could set a precedent for other companies.
So far, it has fined Meta a total of €2.5 billion for violations of the EU's 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The DPC said it did not initially propose to include a penalty in the suspension order, but that four other EU regulators disagreed and the record fine was included following a decision by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB).
The Irish regulator has imposed more fines on Meta than any other tech company and is currently conducting 10 other investigations into the social media group's platforms.
