London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Jul 22, 2025

Meta faces record EU privacy fines

Meta faces record EU privacy fines

EU is finalizing imminent decisions on the legality of the US tech giant’s data-hungry business model.
This Christmas is bound to be an expensive one for U.S. tech giant Meta.

The Big Tech firm looks set to soon face a huge regulatory bill for all three of its social networks, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. Europe's privacy regulator body, the European Data Protection Board, is expected to issue decisions on Monday that target the three platforms, after which Meta's lead regulator in Ireland will issue a final decision within a month.

The detail and possible value of the monetary penalty will remain under wraps until then, but the triplet of fines could add up to over €2 billion, financial statements by Meta indicate — setting a new record for the highest fines under the European Union's feared General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) received by a single company in one go.

According to filings in Ireland, Meta has set aside €3 billion for EU privacy fines in 2022 and 2023. Its platform Instagram already got slapped with a €405 million fine in September for violating kids' privacy, and Facebook so far has accumulated €282 million in penalties for data breaches as well as a €60 million hit from the French. That leaves well over €2 billion earmarked by the firm for regulatory action.

That's a substantial hit for Meta, which announced last month it was laying off 11,000 employees globally amid lower sales and major costs linked to the firm's pivot to the metaverse.

Beyond hitting Meta's pocket, the three fines expected within weeks could also put a bomb under its broader business model. The decisions stem from complaints filed by Austrian activist Max Schrems accusing the company of failing to have proper legal grounds to process millions of Europeans' data. If the final decisions invalidate Meta’s argument that it’s processing data as part of a contract with users, the company would have to seek another legal basis for its data-fuelled ad targeting model.

The cases have also revealed deep fissures between Europe's data watchdogs.

Ireland's data protection commission largely backed Meta's argument that it could claim it needs data to fulfill a "contract" with its users to provide personalized ads, in its draft decision issued a year ago. But that reasoning has long put Ireland in the minority amongst its colleagues. The Norwegian data protection authority said the Irish interpretation would render European data protection law “pointless,” according to a document obtained by POLITICO last year. The Irish regulator was also alone in voting against EU guidelines that banned companies from using the contract legal basis to use data to target ads.

The three decisions are likely to lay into the Irish regulator's initial position and, more worryingly for Meta, amp up the pressure for the company to go scrambling for new legal ways to gather and process data on Europeans.

Meta also still faces an ongoing, high-profile probe into the company's transfers of Europeans' data to the U.S.

Meta declined to comment. It can still appeal the fines coming out of the coming decisions.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×