Goal could withdraw its services throughout the European Union after receiving a record fine of 1.2 billion euros. The hit to its finances, added to new laws that would limit its operations, raises the possibility that the parent company Facebook, instagram and WhatsApp get out of the whole territory.
This week, a court found that Facebook’s parent company had breached the General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD). According to the opinion, the technology giant did not adequately protect the private information of European users from the surveillance of the security services of the United States.
According to the documents, cited by The New York Timesthe transfer of data from Meta to the United States did not fully shield the personal information of users, relying on some contractual clauses that the European Union considered ‘inadequate’.
According to said regulation, European regulators can impose fines equivalent to up to 4% of a company’s annual revenue, in the case of serious infractions.
Now, Meta will have to pay the highest fine imposed by the European Union to a company for violating data protection, and also will not be able to continue transferring the data of European users to the United States.
The EU has set a deadline for 5 months for Meta to stop any future transfer of personal data to the United States. In addition, Mark Zuckerberg’s company has a maximum of 6 months to stop “illegally” storing and managing personal data transferred from Europe to the US.
Of course, this represents a serious problem for your business.
Meta plans to appeal the decision, as well as the fine and the rest of the sanctions. His argument is that the withdrawal of social networks with the most users on the planet represents potential harm to the millions of people who use them daily.
On the other hand, the New copyright laws in Europewhich will enter in mid-2023, propose forcing Meta platforms to pay for content, which will increase costs and expenses.
“Many other countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Latin America are already studying or have applied laws that impose sanctions, fines or prohibition of advertising, for not removing certain types of content or not following certain processes,” said the company. in statements quoted by The Economist.
Given this scenario, the multinational had already warned of the risk that these factors could represent for its business globally.
In its most recent annual report, Meta warned that if the European Union did not make “a proper decision on the matter” or find a viable alternative, the company would be forced to shut down services like Facebook and Instagram throughout the area.
“It is likely that we will not be able to offer in Europe some of our most important products and services, such as Facebook and Instagram, and even email services,” the report reads.
The European market represents 23% of Meta’s international business and only in 2022 the total volume of its business was 26,681 million dollars, 8.1% less than in 2021. Therefore, they stressed that the court ruling will have “a negative impact on our business, on the financial situation and on the result of operations”.
Editorial Team The editorial team of EMPRENDEDOR.com, which for more than 27 years has worked to promote entrepreneurship.