Italy’s data protection agency has issued a significant penalty against Facebook parent company Meta, imposing a fine of €805 million ($887 million). The regulator stated that the company accessed users' photos and videos without obtaining their specific consent. Meta has confirmed it intends to appeal the ruling, with a company spokesperson asserting that the firm strongly disagrees with the regulator’s assessment and believes the level of the fine is disproportionate.
The penalty stems from a feature introduced in 2023 that suggests photos and videos from a user’s phone gallery to be used as post ideas while they browse the platform. According to the Italian authority, Facebook gained access to these galleries through a single authorization that was valid for the entire application. This was preceded by a generic notice that requested the enabling of various features, which the regulator argued did not allow users to adequately understand they were also granting access to their personal photo galleries.
As a result of this decision, the authority has mandated that Meta must now seek consent through a separate, specific request for this feature. The company is required to clearly signpost what the feature is used for, specifically mentioning access to the user's photo gallery, and must provide instructions on how to disable the function. In determining the size of the fine, the regulator noted that the infringement affected approximately 20 million Android users in Italy. The agency also highlighted the ongoing nature of the issue for those who have not updated their apps or who had already provided general consent, as well as what it described as Meta’s lack of cooperation throughout the investigation.
The imposed fine amounts to roughly 0.4% of the group’s annual turnover, which reached $201 billion in 2025, yielding a net profit of $60.5 billion. This action follows other major regulatory moves against the company, including an October order from authorities in New Mexico requiring Meta to pay $25 billion for misleading residents about data usage over a decade, which the company criticized as a tax on free expression. Additionally, in 2021, Amazon faced a fine exceeding €1.1 billion for breaching competition law, a sum that was later reduced to €752 million on appeal.
