The fine against the social media giant, which owns
WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, amounted to a total of EUR 17 million
following an inquiry into 12 data breaches, said the Data Protection Commission
(DPC).
EU member Ireland, which hosts the regional headquarters of
a number of leading tech firms including Apple, Google, and Twitter, has played
a role in policing the bloc's strict General Data Protection Regulations
(GDPR).
The Irish data watchdog said Meta's had "failed to have
in place appropriate technical and organisational measures" in the context
of the 12 personal data breaches.
The data breach notifications were received by the DPC over
a six-month period between June 7, 2018 and December 4, 2018, it said.
"This fine is about record keeping practices from 2018
that we have since updated, not a failure to protect people's
information," a Meta spokesperson told AFP.
"We take our obligations under the GDPR seriously, and
will carefully consider this decision as our processes continue to
evolve."
Two European supervisory authorities working as part of the
GDPR's decision-making process raised objections to the initial DPC decision,
but "consensus was achieved through further engagement between the DPC and
the supervisory authorities," the Irish commission said.
In September last year, Ireland hit WhatsApp with a record
EUR 225 million fine following pressure from other European regulators to
increase an initial penalty.
In a draft finding submitted to other European regulators
for approval, the DPC proposed imposing a fine of between EUR 30 and 50 million,
but a number of national regulators rejected the figure, triggering the launch
of a dispute resolution process.
The GDPR, which came into force in 2018, has been viewed as
a powerful weapon for EU members to curb the excesses of big tech companies,
giving national watchdogs cross-border powers and the possibility to impose
sizable fines for data misuse.
US Big Tech companies have faced probes and huge fines in
Europe, as well as plans for EU-wide legislation to rein them in.