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Norway rejects Facebook owner Meta's appeal to defer ban

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Norway rejects Facebook owner Meta's appeal to defer ban
Norway has rejected an appeal from Meta to defer a marketing ban. File photo: A smartphone and a computer screen displaying the logos of the social network Facebook and its parent company Meta. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)

A Norwegian court on Wednesday rejected US tech giant Meta's request to defer a ban on behavioural marketing based on users' personal information, which has landed it a heavy fine in the country.

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Since August 14th, Meta has been incurring a fine of one million kroner ($97,000) per day of non-compliance under an order issued by the Norwegian
data protection agency Datatilsynet.

It says Meta has not complied with a July 14th ban on sending Facebook and Instagram users targeted advertisements based on their personal data which the social media platform collects without their explicit consent.

Meta wants the ban suspended and has pointed to a similar legal case in Ireland, where its European headquarters is based.

In January, the Irish regulator -- acting on behalf of the EU -- slapped Meta with heavy fines totalling 390 million euros for breaching EU personal
data laws on Facebook and Instagram.

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On August 1, the social media giant said it would ask users in the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland to give their consent
before allowing targeted advertising on its networks.

But the Norwegian regulator has said that is insufficient, and questioned what would happen with the data already collected over several years. Its director, Line Coll, on Wednesday hailed the Oslo court's decision as "a great victory for the protection of privacy".

The regulator said it was considering bringing the case to the European Data Protection Board to get the ban extended across Europe.

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