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The Enormous Scale of GDPR Fines for Mark Zuckerberg’s Companies Revealed

 To date, the social media giant Meta has been penalized with a massive $2.8 billion (yes with B in USD) fine for going against the GDPR.


Meta continues to remain a favorite company by officials in the EU and they’ve been targeting the organization left and right for several violations of the GDPR.

It wouldn’t be wrong to refer to Ireland as the world’s ‘Leading Data Regulatory Authority’ that continues to impose massive fines on big technology companies in the industry who fail to follow the stringent GDPR law that came out in 2018.


Meta is a big player in the digital space and it’s been subject to legal actions for years, let’s not forget how fines worth billions have been handed over. GDPR breaches incurred by Meta have been a constant worry for Zuckerberg and from what we’re seeing right now, it’s not ending soon.

The company was penalized a massive $442 million in Sep. 2022 and then another massive one comprising $425 million was rolled out on Meta Limited in January of 2023. And as time went on, things did not get any better. It’s interesting how the Irish-based regulator has been penalizing the organization from the start of GDPR. The majority of fines that Meta has been forced to pay have arisen from here.

Remember, WhatsApp Ireland also led the pack in terms of fining the company in 2021 so we’re not quite sure what’s going on here. But one thing is certain, Meta’s got a lot to do to get back into the firm’s good books.

The Irish Data Protection Commission enforced a lion’s share record featuring 1.78 billion Euros in the past year.

Most tech firms have headquarters based in Ireland and it’s shocking how the country has been serving as the leading data privacy enforcer for so long. Fines have been hitting tech giants left and right and Meta is the hardest hit amongst them all. Now what could the reason behind all of this be?

Both Facebook and Instagram are now being called out for wrongful data processing. Their apps have breached the GDPR for most of the same reasons and many can’t help but wonder why Meta does not learn from the past.

The head for data privacy regarding cybersecurity mentioned how it appears that the country’s data regulatory body has more to do with its favorable environment than anything else. But recent reports have gone on to prove how the number of fines rolled out across the EU in the past year is mostly due to successful appeals in several jurisdictions. Many also feel this has to do with the fact that opinions have been divided regarding several decisions including the EU Data Protection Board.

In May of 2023, the company was barred from transferring data belonging to EU citizens into the US, which investigators said was a huge privacy violation. This saw cross-border penalties being implemented on the tech giant with a warning of such action to be repeated in the future. But now, we are seeing it being punished for unlawful data processing, leading to a loss worth billions.
Meta did come under fire for another leading reason. Its decision to roll ad-free subscriptions for those with Premium tiers was called out for breaching EU laws. So as you can see, failure in terms of complying with EU laws appears to be the main reason why Meta keeps being penalized.





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