Lawyer Monthly - June 2023

Meta Receives Record €1.2 Billion Euro Fine Over GDPR Violations Facebook parent Meta has been struck with a record €1.2 billion ($1.9 billion) fine by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) after the company continued to transfer EU user data to the US after a 2020 EU court ruling that invalidated its EU-US data transfer pact. The fine tops the record previously held by Amazon. com when a Luxembourg court called for a €746 million ($1.2 billion) EU privacy fine against the company in 2021. For its violation, Meta has been given five months to end data transfers to the US. Meta has vowed to fight the “unjustified and unnecessary” fine, which it claims “sets a dangerous precedent” regarding data transfers made by other companies. Meta added that it expected a new pact to facilitate the safe transfer of EU citizens' personal data to the United States would be fully implemented before it had to suspend transfers. The company has previously warned that a halt in data transfers could force it to suspend Facebook services in Europe. Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems said in a statement that the new plans were unlikely to be a permanent fix. "In my view, the new deal has maybe a 10 per cent chance of not being killed by the CJEU," he said. "Unless US surveillance laws get fixed, Meta will likely have to keep EU data in the EU." MONTHLY ROUND-UP 9

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