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ARTICLE · 20 JUNE 2023

Meta's $1.3B Fine Highlights Risks Of EU-US Data Transfers

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Irish regulators have hit Meta with the largest fine in the history of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—shining a spotlight on personal data transfers to the United States.

GlobalPrivacy
Sue C. Friedberg
Sue C. Friedberg
Richard Montes de Oca
Richard Montes de Oca
Andrew M. Weiner
Andrew M. Weiner
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Irish regulators have hit Meta with the largest fine in the history of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—shining a spotlight on personal data transfers to the United States.

Key Takeaways

  • GDPR demands that organizations transferring personal data outside the European Union ensure an equivalent level of protection in the importing country. The United States is considered a particularly risky data transfer because of U.S. intelligence agencies' and law enforcement's potential access to personal information in scope of the GDPR.
  • The Irish regulators' decision is extraordinary because it demonstrates that the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), a widely used contractual solution to protect transferred data, in addition to certain supplementary measures, are not in all cases sufficient to meet GDPR requirements in cases of high-volume data transfers.

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