Bankinter: The Irish Data Protection Commission imposes a €1.2 billion fine on the technology company for transferring European citizens’ data to the US in breach of EU legislation.
Analysis team’s opinion: Bad news, but already expected. It is a significant amount. The largest fine imposed so far. It compares with the €746m the EU fined Amazon in 2021 and is about 4% of Meta’s estimated PBT for the whole of 2023. In addition, Meta will have to stop sending data within five months and delete data already transferred within six. The company has already announced that it will appeal this decision and request a suspension. Despite this news, Meta yesterday rose +1.1% at the close. For two reasons. The market had already estimated a high fine and, in addition, the amount finally fixed is far from the maximum that could have been imposed (more than €4,000M).
