On May 22nd the EU whacked Meta with a €1.2bn ($1.3bn) fine for transferring users’ data to America, in breach of European privacy rules (which turn five this week). The social-media giant is a repeat offender when it comes to privacy breaches. But the EU has reserved the biggest penalties for other sins. Between 2017 and 2019 Google was fined a total of over €8bn for abusing its dominance in search and advertising. Both Google and Meta can afford it; the fines represent a fraction of their profits.

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From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on https://www.economist.com/business/2023/05/25/meta-gets-whacked-with-a-eu12bn-penalty