Meta Platforms Fined EUR265 Mln Over Facebook Data Leak

(RTTNews) - Meta Platforms Inc. (META), the parent company of social media giant Facebook, has been slapped with a hefty fine for breaching European data protection law.

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has imposed a fine of 265 million euros or about $275 million on Monday.

The DPC said it commenced the inquiry on April 14, 2021, on foot of media reports into the discovery of a collated dataset of Facebook personal data that had been made available on the internet. The scope of the inquiry concerned an examination and assessment of Facebook Search, Facebook Messenger Contact Importer and Instagram Contact Importer tools in relation to processing carried out by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited during the period between May 25, 2018 and September 2019.

The DPC examined the implementation of technical and organizational measures pursuant to Article 25 GDPR, which deals with this concept.

The DPC said it is also imposing a range of corrective measures.

"The decision imposed a reprimand and an order requiring MPIL to bring its processing into compliance by taking a range of specified remedial actions within a particular timeframe. In addition, the decision has imposed administrative fines totaling €265 million on MPIL," the agency said.