Facebook was given a record $1.3 billion fine and was given five months to stop EU-US data flows, following an investigation into its data protection practices. The fine is the largest yet imposed by the European Commission and aims to send a strong message to social media companies that they must comply with EU data protection law.
The deadline of five months was also issued to ensure that Facebook makes the necessary changes to ensure that its data flows are compliant. This follows an investigation into Facebook’s use of ‘adequacy decisions’ to transfer personal data from the EU to the US, which was found to violate EU data protection rules. The company was ordered to end all data flows to the US within five months or face additional fines of up to 4% of its annual global turnover.