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Norway’s Data Protection Authority said on Monday that Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, will be fined 1 million crowns ($100,000) per day for privacy breaches unless it takes remedial action, in a move that could have wider European ramifications.
Regulator Datatilsynet said it will impose the fine every day from Aug. 4 through Nov. 3 unless Meta takes action.
It said Meta cannot harvest user data in Norway, such as users’ physical locations, and use it to target ads to them, which is called behavioral advertising, a business model popular with big tech companies.
“This is clearly so illegal that we need to intervene now and immediately. We can’t wait any longer,” Tobias Godin, head of the international division of Datatelcenet, told Reuters.
Meta said it would review Datatilsynet’s decision and there would be no immediate impact on its services.
Datatilsynet has referred its move to the European Data Protection Council, which, if the latter agrees, could make the fine permanent and expand the territorial scope of the decision in Europe.
“It will put extra pressure on Meta,” said Godin.
Datatilsynet’s decision comes days after the European Union’s Supreme Court ruled that Meta cannot collect user data for behavioral advertising.
In December, the Data Regulatory Authority of Ireland (DPC), where Meta is based in Europe, said the company had had to stop the practice.
“We continue to work constructively with the Irish DPC, our main regulator in the European Union, regarding our compliance with its decision,” Meta said.
“The debate over legal grounds has been going on for some time and companies continue to face a lack of regulatory certainty in this area.”
Norway is not a member of the European Union but is part of the European Single Market.
The news was first reported by Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
($1 = 10.0190 Norwegian krone)
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