A Meta Strike

Listen to Today's Edition:

European regulators fined Facebook’s owner, Meta, a record $1.3 billion on Monday for sending users’ information to the United States, the latest clash between the European Union and American tech giants amid negotiations for a new trans-Atlantic data deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission issued the fine on the tech giant, saying that the company had violated the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation for years by illegally storing the data of European Facebook users on its servers in the US.

The commission said that such data could be accessed by American spy agencies without any proper means for users to appeal. The decision also bars Meta from sending information about European users to the US and ordered it to delete data that has already been sent within six months.

The firm plans to appeal the decision, calling it “flawed, unjustified” and said it “sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and the US.”

The move is considered the EU’s biggest step in enforcing a 2020 ruling by the bloc’s top court, which restricted how Big Tech companies can send personal data about Europeans to the US. The verdict mentioned that EU citizens have no effective legal way to challenge American government surveillance.

But that ruling also put a wrench into the existing trans-Atlantic data deal, prompting US and EU policymakers to negotiate a new agreement. The recent fine will force both sides to speed up these negotiations over the deal which would allow Meta and thousands of multinational companies to keep sending such information stateside.

The agreement – first agreed in principle in 2022 – would command the EU to lift many of its restrictions on companies sending information to the US, as long as American officials addressed concerns by the bloc’s top court – for example, giving Europeans new avenues to appeal surveillance.

But the new deal is still facing delays as EU officials lament that the US government hasn’t fully implemented its end of the deal. Meanwhile, European lawmakers said the deal should be renegotiated.