Meta fined a record $1.3 billion over EU user data transfers to the U.S.

Meta has been fined a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) by European privacy regulators over the transfer of EU user data to the U.S.

The decision links back to a case brought by Australian privacy campaigner Max Schrems who argued that the framework for transferring EU citizen data to America did not protect Europeans from U.S. surveillance.

Several mechanisms to legally transfer personal data between the U.S. and the EU have been contested. The latest such iteration, Privacy Shield, was struck down by the European Court of Justice, the EU’s top court, in 2020.

The Irish Data Protection Commission that overseas Meta operations in the EU alleged that the company infringed the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when it continued to send the personal data of European citizens to the U.S despite the 2020 European court ruling.

GDPR is the EU’s landmark data protection regulation that governs firms active in the bloc. It came into effect in 2018.

This report’s information was first seen on CNBC; to read more, click this link.