Facebook agrees to pay fine over Cambridge Analytica scandal
- The US$644,600 fine was the highest possible that could be issued by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office and ended more than a year of litigation
The ICO announced its intention to fine Facebook in July 2018. Unusually, the office went public with its intention before giving Facebook a chance to respond, and ultimately issued the official penalty notice three months later, in October. Facebook appealed against the fine, and in June 2019 the tribunal issued an interim decision “holding that procedural fairness and allegations of bias on the part of the ICO should be considered as part of the appeal, and that the ICO should be required to disclose materials relating to its decision-making process”.
Under the terms of the settlement, Facebook has made no admission of liability. The company has also been allowed to retain the documents disclosed by the ICO, in part because they may help it in its own investigation into the issues around Cambridge Analytica. That investigation had been paused at the ICO’s request.
Since Cambridge Analytica’s data protection violations occurred in 2015, before the implementation of the EU’s general data protection regulation in 2018, the maximum possible fine the ICO could levy was £500,000. If the offences had occurred after May 2018, the potential fine could have been much higher – up to 4 per cent of Facebook’s annual turnover.
James Dipple-Johnstone, the ICO’s deputy commissioner, said: “The ICO welcomes the agreement reached with Facebook for the withdrawal of their appeal against our monetary penalty notice and agreement to pay the fine. The ICO’s main concern was that UK citizen data was exposed to a serious risk of harm.
