The Irish Privacy Authority has decided to impose a record fine of 1.2 billion euros on Meta for breaching European data protection law via Facebook. This was announced by the European Data Protection Supervisor. This is the highest penalty imposed by a data protection regulator in Europe, the result of an investigation launched in 2020.

Meta, which intends to appeal, has been convicted of "continuing to transfer personal data" of users from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the United States in violation of European data protection rules, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said in its decision.

Meta must also "suspend any transfer of personal data to the United States within five months" of notification of the decision and must comply within six months. Meta calls the fine "unjustified and unnecessary" and will initiate legal action to suspend it, the social media giant reacted immediately in a statement.

"Thousands of companies and organizations rely on the ability to transfer data between the EU and the US" and "there is a conflict of fundamental rights between the US government's rules on access to data and European privacy rights", explained the Californian giant.