LONDON — Meta has been fined a record-breaking €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) by European regulators for transferring data belonging to Facebook’s EU users to servers in the United States.
The European Data Protection Board announced the fine in a statement Monday and said it followed an inquiry into Facebook (FB) by the Irish Data Protection Commission, the chief privacy regulator overseeing Meta’s operations in Europe.
The fine is the largest ever levied under Europe’s signature data privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Meta’s infringement is “very serious since it concerns transfers that are systematic, repetitive and continuous,” said Andrea Jelinek, chair of the European Data Protection Board.
“Facebook has millions of users in Europe, so the volume of personal data transferred is massive. The unprecedented fine is a strong signal to organizations that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences,” she added.
Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, said it would appeal the ruling, including the fine. There would be no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe, it added.
“The ability for data to be transferred across borders is fundamental to how the global open internet works,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, and Jennifer Newstead, the company’s chief legal officer, said in a statement.
“Thousands of businesses and other organizations rely on the ability to transfer data between the EU and the US in order to operate and provide services that people use every day.”
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