Top EU regulator defends mega $1.3 billion privacy fine on Meta: ‘I have to enforce the law’

A apical European Union information privateness regulator connected Wednesday defended a determination to deed Meta with a record-setting 1.2 cardinal euro ($1.3 billion) fine, saying that she had to enforce the instrumentality based connected existing regulations.

Helen Dixon, the Data Protection Commissioner for Ireland — the main regulator for Meta and respective different large U.S. tech companies — said that the watchdog took the determination to relationship for the existing EU-U.S. information transfers model that was successful place.

"I person to enforce the instrumentality arsenic it is astatine the time," Dixon said Wednesday successful an interrogation with CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange."

Meta connected Monday was fined a record 1.2 cardinal euros ($1.3 billion) by the Irish Data Protection Commission for breaching the EU's pugnacious rules connected information privacy, known arsenic the General Data Protection Regulation.

GDPR is simply a landmark information extortion regularisation that governs firms successful the bloc. It came into effect successful May 2018. Since then, EU privateness regulators person deed large U.S. tech companies with immoderate eye-watering fines, including an $887 cardinal connected Amazon successful Luxembourg and a $267 cardinal good connected WhatsApp successful Ireland. Meta's good of Monday is the largest to date.

Several mechanisms to legally transportation idiosyncratic information betwixt the U.S. and the EU person been contested. The latest specified iteration, Privacy Shield, was struck down by the European Court of Justice, the EU's apical court, successful 2020.

The Irish Data Protection Commission that oversees Meta operations successful the EU alleged the institution infringed the bloc's GDPR erstwhile it continued to nonstop the idiosyncratic information of European citizens to the U.S contempt the 2020 European tribunal ruling.

Ireland's regulator besides pronounced that Meta was not allowed to proceed sharing information connected Europeans with the U.S., successful a perchance business-crippling determination that could unit the steadfast to determination each of its retention and processing of Europeans' information locally successful the EU.

EU and U.S. officials person been attempting to hold a model to regenerate Privacy Shield, and determination are reports that a substitute for the mechanics could beryllium greenlit by the summer. According to Meta, this would person allowed the institution to proceed sharing information connected EU citizens with its facilities successful the U.S. arsenic normal.

Asked wherefore the regulator chose to instrumentality its determination now, erstwhile determination is much regularisation to travel down the line, Dixon said, "The constituent is, it inactive hasn't travel into effect."

She added, "This caller agreement, called the European Data Privacy Framework, it's inactive pending. And astatine the clip I concluded my probe past summer, it inactive wasn't truly connected the horizon. So I had to enforce the instrumentality arsenic it is astatine the time."

Before Monday, Meta was astir precocious struck with a $414 cardinal good for abstracted GDPR breaches connected its WhatsApp and Instagram apps successful January. The Monday Meta good is the largest to day since the EU's GDPR came into force. Meta says it plans to entreaty the determination and the fine.

- CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report