EU Pulls out the Big Guns: Record Privacy Fine on the Horizon for Meta

Meta Platforms, Inc META will likely face a record European Union privacy fine related to data transfer of Facebook's EU users to U.S. servers for failing to comply with a warning by a top EU court.
The EU court warns violation will entail a higher penalty than the previous record €746 million ($821.20 million) fine for Amazon.com Inc AMZN, Reuters reports.
EU regulators led by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon have been finalizing a ban on the legal tool used by Facebook to transfer European user data over privacy concerns.
In April, they said the Irish DPC had a month to make an order blocking Facebook's transatlantic data flows. The ban could be effective by mid-May.
Europe's highest court ruled in 2020 that an EU-U.S. data transfer agreement was invalid, citing surveillance concerns.
In 2022, Meta warned against suspending Facebook services in Europe following the ban on its mechanism to transfer data from Europe to the U.S.
Meta held $37.44 billion in cash and equivalents as of March 31, 2023.
Price Action: META shares traded lower by 0.23% at $241.92 premarket on the last check Thursday.
Photo by JD Lasica via Wikimedia