US giant Meta was ordered by a German court today to pay 5.000 euros to a Facebook user for violating European data protection rules, a decision that paves the way for further lawsuits.
"The high fine is justified by "the fact that Meta massively violates European data protection law" with its "business" tools designed to profile Facebook users and thus earn billions through targeted advertising," the Leipzig Regional Court said in a statement.
The practice violates European law because it results in almost constant surveillance of users' private lives, even when they are not logged into their Facebook or Instagram accounts, which are owned by Meta, the court said.
Unlike other jurisdictions in Germany, the Leipzig court did not refer to national law relating to the invasion of privacy, but only to European law.
The target can appeal this decision.
The American giant's European platform, located in Ireland, systematically transfers private data to third countries around the world, including the United States (US), where it is exploited on a "scale unknown to the user", a judge in Leipzig said.
The court added that it was "aware" that this decision "risks encouraging many Facebook users to file lawsuits without proving specific individual harm."
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