Italy’s data protection agency fined Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) €805 million ($887.3 million) on Saturday for accessing Android users’ photos and videos without consent.
The agency, known as Garante, said Meta accessed personal galleries through a Facebook app feature that suggested content to post. This was done "without obtaining specific consent or adequately informing them," Garante said.
What Regulators Found
Around 20 million Android users in Italy were affected, the agency said. The feature, available since 2023, was preset as active. It relied on a single app-wide permission and a generic warning that did not disclose gallery access.
The probe began in July 2025 after a complaint from a Bolzano consumer group, Garante said.
Compliance Deadlines
Meta has 60 days to disable the feature by default and seek separate, feature-specific consent, the agency said. It must report its initiatives within 30 days and its measures within 90 days.
The penalty equals about 0.47% of Meta’s global revenue, the agency said.
The case did not cover whether content was used to train artificial intelligence models, which Meta denies, Garante said. It reserved the right to assess a separate 2026 feature that processes gallery content in the cloud.
Meta did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments.
Meta Faces Mounting Regulatory Pressure
Italian regulators have targeted Meta before. In December 2025, the country’s antitrust authority ordered the company to suspend WhatsApp terms that could block rival AI chatbots. Meta called that ruling "fundamentally flawed" and said it would appeal.
In July 2026, the European Commission preliminarily found that Meta breached the Digital Services Act through addictive design features on Instagram and Facebook. Fines could reach 6% of annual revenue, or nearly $12 billion, if confirmed. Meta disputes the findings.
In October, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in privacy-related penalties, plus 15% annual interest, or about $3.75 billion a year, until paid.
Trading Metrics
Meta has a market capitalization of about $1.67 trillion. Over the past 52 weeks, its stock has traded as high as $779.82 and as low as $520.26.
Over the past 12 months, the large-cap tech stock has gained 5.29%.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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