The European Union (EU) is likely to impose a substantial fine on Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in connection with the transfer of EU users' data to US servers. This penalty was imposed because Meta disregarded a warning issued by a leading EU court. The fine is expected to be higher than the previous record fine of $821 million (Rs 6,770 crore) imposed on Amazon, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
Both Meta and the pertinent authorities have stayed silent on the subject.
The European Union is close to enacting a ban on the legal mechanism used by Facebook to transfer user data within Europe, under the direction of Helen Dixon, Ireland's data protection commissioner. Concerns about possible access to this material by U.S. intelligence agencies led to this action.
EU authorities declared in April that the Irish DPC had a month to issue a ruling halting Facebook's transatlantic data flows. By the middle of May, this ban may go into effect.
The decision to outlaw the data transmission tool was made after Europe's highest court invalidated an EU-US data transfer deal in 2020 due to concerns about surveillance activities.
In response, Meta issued a warning last year, stating that it might be forced to stop providing Facebook services in Europe if a decision were made to outlaw the company's method of transferring data from Europe to the United States.
