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Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. is facing a new batch of fines over data-privacy issues in Europe, but the social-media giant says it will appeal the latest ruling.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission announced Wednesday that it planned to fine Meta
META,
a combined €390 million ($410 million) for data-processing issues related to Facebook and Instagram.
The fines center on a past Meta policy change that asked users to consent to new terms of service if they wished to continue using Facebook and Instagram. The ruling found that Meta violated the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by essentially forcing users to either adopt terms that would allow their data to be used for ad targeting or lose access to Facebook and Instagram.
Meta disputes the latest ruling and plans to appeal “both the substance of the rulings and the fines,” according to a blog post it put out on Wednesday.
“Facebook and Instagram are inherently personalised, and we believe that providing each user with their own unique experience — including the ads they see — is a necessary and essential part of that service,” the company said in the post.
European regulators have taken aim at Meta’s practices on a number of fronts recently. In December, the EU accused Meta of violating antitrust rules in the market for online classified ads. Irish regulators fined the company $274 million in November for a data breach that exposed information belonging to hundreds of millions of users.
The latest fines don’t appear to be affecting Meta’s stock, which is up more than 2% in Wednesday’s session.
