The Irish Data Protection Commission fined Meta $400 million for violations in the collection and processing of user data for targeted advertising. The Verge writes about it. The regulator believes that the company forced users to agree to the processing of their personal data on Instagram and Facebook.

The fines were the result of two complaints filed in 2018. The company was accused of non-compliance with the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The new law was passed in the same year, but despite this, Meta continued to require users to agree to the processing of data in the user agreement. Complaints indicated that this amounted to coercion to consent to targeted advertising.

The regulator considered that the company did not clearly explain all the conditions to users. After consultation with the European Data Protection Board, it was decided that such consent could not protect such breaches. In addition to the fines imposed, the company was ordered to bring its services in line with GDPR requirements within three months.

Meta plans to appeal the ruling. Representatives of the company also said that this will not prevent services from showing targeted ads. “We are exploring various options on how to continue offering our personalized service to users,” Meta said in a statement.

This is not the first penalty for Meta for processing personal data. In September, the company was fined $402 million for handling teenage information, and in November, the developer was ordered to pay $276 million for data breaches in 2021.