Nigeria: FCCPC gives update on why Meta is fined $220m as company plans appeal

More facts have emerged why Meta, parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp, was fined $220 million in Nigeria.

A statement at the weekend by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) stated that Meta broke local consumer, data protection, and privacy laws.

The update by the FCCPC also alleged infractions include data-sharing on social media sites breached local consumer, data protection, and privacy laws.

The statement also quoted Dr Adamu Abdullahi, the acting Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the FCCPC, as saying that the commission’s inquiry conducted between May 2021 and December 2023 revealed that Meta had obtained control of Nigerian customers’ data on its platforms without their consent.

The FCCPC boss said the social media giant unfairly and unequally treated Nigerians in contrast to other nations with comparable legal systems, abusing their dominant position in the market.

According to him, “Abuse of dominant market position by forcing unscrupulous, exploitative, and non-compliant privacy policies which appropriated consumer personal information without the option or opportunity to self-determine or otherwise withhold or provide consent to the gathering, use, and/or sharing of such personal data.”

The FCCPC insisted that the fine is in line with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection (Administrative Penalties) Regulations 2020 (APR) and the FCCPA 2018.

The commission is dedicated to safeguarding Nigerians’ privacy in line with the Constitution and all applicable data protection laws and regulations, as well as making sure that their rights as consumers are upheld.

However, Meta said it would be appealing the $220 million punishment levied by the FCCPC for breaking Nigerian data privacy regulations.

According to Meta, “We disagree with the decision today as well as the fine and Meta will be appealing the decision.

“In 2021, we went to users globally to explain how talking to businesses among other things would work and while there was a lot of confusion then, it has actually proven quite popular.”

Earlier report stated that after Brazil’s data protection authorities imposed a preliminary prohibition in opposition to Meta’s new privacy policy, Meta decided to halt the usage of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in that country.