Meta Platforms is asking a Norwegian court to stop the Nordic country’s data regulator from fineing Facebook and Instagram owners for violating user privacy, according to a court filing.
Meta Platforms will be fined 1 million kroner ($97,700) a day for privacy violations from Aug. 14, Norway’s data protection agency told Reuters on Monday, a decision that could have wider implications across Europe.
Meta Platforms is seeking a temporary injunction against the order, according to a court filing. Its petition will be filed at a two-day hearing on Aug. 22.
Meta Platforms did not respond to a request for comment. The company’s Norwegian lawyer did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Norway’s data watchdog, Datatilsynet, said Meta Platforms was seeking to block the fine.
“They said the court should … suspend our order pending a full trial,” Tobias Judin, head of Datatilsynet’s international division, told Reuters. “Datatilsynet will argue that there is no basis for the injunction.”
The regulator said Meta was unable to collect user data in Norway, such as users’ physical location, and use that data to serve them targeted ads (known as behavioral advertising), a common business model for big tech companies.
Fines will last until November 3rd. Datatilsynet can make its decision permanent by submitting it to the European Data Protection Board, which has the power to do so if it agrees with the Norwegian supervisory authority’s decision.
It could also extend the territorial scope of the decision to other parts of Europe.
Datatilsynet hasn’t taken that step yet.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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