Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Meta faces record EU privacy fines

Meta faces record EU privacy fines

EU is finalizing imminent decisions on the legality of the US tech giant’s data-hungry business model.
This Christmas is bound to be an expensive one for U.S. tech giant Meta.

The Big Tech firm looks set to soon face a huge regulatory bill for all three of its social networks, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. Europe's privacy regulator body, the European Data Protection Board, is expected to issue decisions on Monday that target the three platforms, after which Meta's lead regulator in Ireland will issue a final decision within a month.

The detail and possible value of the monetary penalty will remain under wraps until then, but the triplet of fines could add up to over €2 billion, financial statements by Meta indicate — setting a new record for the highest fines under the European Union's feared General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) received by a single company in one go.

According to filings in Ireland, Meta has set aside €3 billion for EU privacy fines in 2022 and 2023. Its platform Instagram already got slapped with a €405 million fine in September for violating kids' privacy, and Facebook so far has accumulated €282 million in penalties for data breaches as well as a €60 million hit from the French. That leaves well over €2 billion earmarked by the firm for regulatory action.

That's a substantial hit for Meta, which announced last month it was laying off 11,000 employees globally amid lower sales and major costs linked to the firm's pivot to the metaverse.

Beyond hitting Meta's pocket, the three fines expected within weeks could also put a bomb under its broader business model. The decisions stem from complaints filed by Austrian activist Max Schrems accusing the company of failing to have proper legal grounds to process millions of Europeans' data. If the final decisions invalidate Meta’s argument that it’s processing data as part of a contract with users, the company would have to seek another legal basis for its data-fuelled ad targeting model.

The cases have also revealed deep fissures between Europe's data watchdogs.

Ireland's data protection commission largely backed Meta's argument that it could claim it needs data to fulfill a "contract" with its users to provide personalized ads, in its draft decision issued a year ago. But that reasoning has long put Ireland in the minority amongst its colleagues. The Norwegian data protection authority said the Irish interpretation would render European data protection law “pointless,” according to a document obtained by POLITICO last year. The Irish regulator was also alone in voting against EU guidelines that banned companies from using the contract legal basis to use data to target ads.

The three decisions are likely to lay into the Irish regulator's initial position and, more worryingly for Meta, amp up the pressure for the company to go scrambling for new legal ways to gather and process data on Europeans.

Meta also still faces an ongoing, high-profile probe into the company's transfers of Europeans' data to the U.S.

Meta declined to comment. It can still appeal the fines coming out of the coming decisions.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×