Ireland's data privacy regulator, the Data Protection Commission (DPC), has decided to levy a record fine of €405 million ($402 million) against Meta Platforms Inc META-owned Instagram following an investigation into its handling of children's data, a spokesperson confirmed to Benzinga in an emailed statement.
Reuters reported on the matter earlier on Monday.
Appeal: Instagram plans to appeal against the fine, a spokesperson for parent Meta Platforms told Reuters in an emailed statement.
The Investigation: The investigation commenced in 2020 and focused on child users between the ages of 13 and 17 who were permitted to operate business accounts, which facilitated the publication of the user's phone number and/or email address, according to the DPC.
The DPC spokesperson said, “We adopted our final decision last Friday and it does contain a fine of €405 million." According to him, the full details of the decision will be published next week.
The Irish regulator finished a draft ruling in the Instagram investigation in December and shared it with other European Union regulators under the bloc's "one-stop shop" system of regulating large multinationals, as per Reuters.
Meta Platforms did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
Price Action: U.S. markets remained shut on Monday. Shares of Meta Platforms closed over 3% lower at $160.32 on Friday, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Quintano on Flickr
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