Meta's record €1.2B GDPR fine over EU-US transfers
€1.2B
≈ $1.3B at the time
Irish Data Protection Commission
Ireland / EU · 2023
Status: Under appeal
What happened
The Irish DPC fined Meta for continuing to transfer EU users' personal data to US servers after the Schrems II ruling, exposing that data to potential US surveillance without adequate safeguards. It is the largest GDPR fine ever issued.
How it affected users
Hundreds of millions of EU Facebook users' data lacked the legally required protection from foreign government access.
Status timeline
May 12, 2023
Final decision adopted after the EDPB's binding Article 65 decision of 13 April 2023.
May 22, 2023
€1.2B fine plus an order to suspend transfers and delete unlawfully transferred data.
Sep 21, 2026
The DPC's fines register lists the fine as pending appeal; DPC fines are not payable until confirmed by a court.
Sources
- IAPP: Meta fined €1.2Bnews
- Irish DPC: conclusion of inquiry into Meta Ireland (€1.2B)regulator
- Irish DPC fines register: status of each DPC fineregulator
Last verified 2026-10-15. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
Cite this entry
Deepak Gupta, "Meta's record €1.2B GDPR fine over EU-US transfers," Tech Fines Directory, guptadeepak.com, 2023-05-22. https://guptadeepak.com/tech-fines/violation/meta-eu-data-transfers-2023/