Over the past ten years, Meta has played with fire by ignoring the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Data Protection Board. Facebook's parent company will have to stop any transfer of personal data from European citizens to the United States and return the data transferred to others on European soil. The fine, imposed by the Irish data protection authority (CPD) at the request of the European Council, is already a record: 1,200 million euros, which exceeds the 746 million with which Amazon was sanctioned for the same reason. In addition, the authorities have given it a period of five months to stop transferring user data to the US Meta will appeal the decision.
In July 2020, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) established that the transfer of data to US providers violates the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and annulled a transfer agreement between the EU and United States called Privacy Shield. This treaty replaced another agreement called Safe Harbor, which had already been annulled in 2015.
Since the European court ruled in July 2020, Facebook and other large technology companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google have relied on the so-called "standard contractual clauses (CCS)" to continue with data transfers and maintain databases. of its European clients. These are clauses approved by the European Commission that must be included in international data transfer contracts between one of the 27 EU countries (in addition to Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland) and another country, such as the United States. Joined.
Meta is awaiting a new data transfer agreement between the EU and the United States that is likely to come into force after next summer, although there is no guarantee that, as with Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield, it will be invalidated by the courts. These European judicial decisions have retroactive effect.
Throughout the dispute, initiated by the Austrian activist Max Schrems, the Irish data protection authority (CPD), where Meta has its European headquarters, has placed numerous obstacles to the technology being sanctioned. The Irish organization tried to avoid the complaint against the American company considering that it was using the standard clauses. According to Meta, the regulator considered that it had "acted in good faith and that a fine was not justified" but "was overruled at the last minute by the European Data Protection Council."
"We are appealing these decisions and will immediately ask the courts to suspend the enforcement deadlines, given the harm these orders would cause, including to the millions of people who use Facebook every day," Nick Clegg, Meta's president, said in a statement. a statement. The company alleges that it "uses the same legal mechanisms as other organizations" and that neither Meta "nor any other company could resolve the legal conflict between the EU and the United States alone." "Therefore, we are disappointed that we have been singled out for using the same legal mechanism as thousands of other companies seeking to provide services in Europe."
Clegg notes that "at a time when the internet is fracturing under the pressure of authoritarian regimes, like-minded democracies must work together to promote and defend the idea of an open internet." Unlike the threat a year ago to leave Europe if its data use was restricted, Meta does not expect to disrupt Facebook's activity, "because the decision includes enforcement periods that extend until the end of this year." "We have the intention - the president of the company has assured - to appeal both the merits of the decision and its orders, including the fine, and we will seek a suspension through the courts to pause the application deadlines.
