Article on Reuters said that Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has been hit with a record-breaking 1.3 billion USD fine by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) for mishandling user data and violating EU privacy regulations. The DPC has also ordered Meta to stop transferring users' data to the United States within five months. This penalty surpasses the previous record fine imposed on Amazon by Luxembourg in 2021. The dispute over data storage began a decade ago when Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems raised concerns about U.S. surveillance. Meta intends to appeal the ruling and the fine, stating that it sets a dangerous precedent.
They expect a new data transfer agreement between the EU and the U.S. to be implemented before the suspension of data transfers becomes necessary. The European Court of Justice has previously invalidated two data transfer pacts due to concerns about U.S. surveillance practices. The DPC's decision could have implications for other companies, and they have now fined Meta a total of 2.5 billion euros for GDPR breaches.
Now that is not something that company would be happy about. Even for the giants like Amazon or Meta, a billion dollars is not just a change. Given the bad news about the company, I decided to check also the chart. Currently, the price is at 244.61 USD. In only few months, it has recorded a growth of 180%, once it recovered from the fall, when it hit the point below 100 USD per stock.* The highest it has been recently, was 380 USD, which gives a company nice space for movement. I have decided to rebuy even more stocks, since I already have some in my portfolio from earlier investment.
Movement of Meta Platforms in the last five years. (Source: Trading Economics) *
* Past performance is no guarantee of future results.