Meta has a 1.3 billion dollar fine against capitalism
DPC Decision to Stop Handling Data from Europe, and Why the Decision is Farther than It Looks: The Irish Consumer Law Challenges Meta
The DPC has given Meta six months to stop handling data from Europe and five months to stop sending data to the US, which could include moving photos, videos, and Facebook posts back to Europe. The decision will bring more attention to other GDPR powers, which can have an impact on how companies handle data and possibly cut to the heart of Big Tech.
Experts do not think that the record breaking fine will change anything fundamentally about Meta’s privacy practices. “A billion-euro parking ticket is of no consequence to a company that earns many more billions by parking illegally,” Johnny Ryan, a senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, told The Guardian this weekend.
Others were more proud of themselves. A press release stated that they were happy to see this decision after ten years of litigation. Meta could have been charged much higher if it had broken the law to make a profit for ten years.
“We are appealing these decisions and will immediately seek a stay with the courts who can pause the implementation deadlines, given the harm that these orders would cause, including to the millions of people who use Facebook every day,” write Clegg and Newstead.
The use of SCCs, a legal mechanism for transferring data, is at the center of the Meta case. Meta sent data to the US in 2020, but was accused of using them to do so. The Irish decision supports other european regulators who found that Meta did not address the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects. In short, they were unlawful.
“The entire commercial and trade relationship between the EU and the US underpinned by data exchanges may be affected,” says Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, vice president of global privacy at Future of Privacy Forum, a nonprofit think tank. The decision is not addressed to Meta but it is about the facts and situations for all American companies doing business in Europe offering online services from payments to cloud, to social media, to electronic communications, or software used in schools and public administrations.
