THE DATA PROTECTION Commission (DPC) has imposed a €17 million fine on Meta, the company that owns Facebook. 

The fine follows a DPC inquiry into 12 data breach notifications it received between June and December 2018. 

The inquiry looked at the extent to which Meta Platforms Ireland Limited complied with sections of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Facebook changed its parent company name to Meta last year. 

The DPC found that the company failed to have appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to show the security measures it implemented in practice to protect the data of EU users. 

The data watchdog’s decision was subject to the co-decision-making process engaging with all of the other European supervisory authorities. 

Two of these authorities raised objections to the DPC’s draft decision but an agreement was eventually reached. 

The DPC said this final decision represents the “collective views of both the DPC and its counterpart supervisory authorities throughout the EU”.