Meta receives record $1.3B fine for sending EU user data to the US

European privacy regulators fined Meta a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for sending user data from the EU to the US.

The decision is related to a case brought by Austrian privacy advocate Max Schrems, who claimed that the framework for sending data from EU citizens to the US did not shield Europeans from American surveillance.

There have been disagreements over a number of legal means of transferring personal data between the US and the EU. The European Court of Justice, the highest court in the EU, invalidated the most recent version of this, the Privacy Shield, in 2020.

The company allegedly violated the EU's General Data Protection Regulation by sending the personal information of European citizens to the US despite a 2020 European court decision, according to the Irish Data Protection Commission, which is in charge of Meta's operations in the EU.

The landmark GDPR data protection law of the EU regulates businesses operating within the region. It became effective in 2018.

Meta transferred personal data within and outside of the EU using a mechanism known as standard contractual clauses. No European Union court blocked this. The European Commission, the EU's executive body, adopted the clauses along with other measures put in place by Meta, according to the Irish data watchdog.

Although the European Court of Justice identified risks to the fundamental rights and liberties of data subjects, the regulator claimed that these arrangements "did not address those risks."