Facebook parent meta tries in Norwegian court to stop data breach: details
Meta Platforms will on Tuesday ask a Norwegian court to stop a fine the country’s data regulator has imposed on the owner of Facebook and Instagram for violating user privacy — a case that could have wider implications for Europe.
Since August 14, Meta Platforms has been fined 1 million kroner ($94,313) a day for collecting data from users and using it to target ads to them, known as behavioral advertising, a business model common at Big Tech.
Meta Platforms is seeking an injunction against the order, which includes a daily fine through November 3.
Meta said Aug. 1 it intends to seek consent from users in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA), Europe’s single market, before allowing behavioral advertising.
“We have already announced our intention to move to the legal basis of consent for personalized advertising to people in the EU and EEA,” Meta said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
The Datatilsynet regulator will defend the fine in court. It is unclear when and how Meta will obtain users’ consent and that in the meantime their rights will be violated.
“Datatilsynet will argue that there is no basis for an injunction,” Tobias Judin, head of the regulator’s international division, told Reuters.
Datatilsynet could make the fine permanent by referring its decision to the European Data Protection Board, which has the power to do so if it agrees with the Norwegian regulator’s decision.
This could also extend the territorial scope of the decision to the rest of Europe. Datatilsynet had yet to take this step.
The hearing at Oslo District Court will last two days.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
