A key Irish regulator is set to consider whether Facebook is breaching European consumers’ data protection rules, just as US tech giants sharpen their resistance to EU regulation, Euronews can reveal.

Complaints filed by Facebook users in Germany, Norway and Spain over the company’s use of personal data for direct marketing purposes, have been transferred to the Irish data protection authority where Facebook has its EU headquarters, officials at the Norwegian authority told Euronews. 

The complaints were filed following an investigation by consumer group Ekō which tracked Meta’s ad program, the organisation said in a statement exclusively shared with Euronews.

The users asked Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to stop using their personal data for direct marketing purposes. Despite these objections, however, Ekō researchers claim to have discovered using a data-matching tool that Meta continued processing the data. 

Under the EU’s privacy rules, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), people have the right to object to their personal data being used for ad targeting.

In addition to the privacy complaints, some 5,000 Ekō members who are also Meta users, wrote to the company asking it to stop processing their personal data in order to target them with marketing based on personal characteristics.

Working with Trump

Social media platforms, including Meta, often use personal data to profile users and target them with ads.

In an opinion published last year, the European Data Protection Board – the network of national data protection authorities in the EU – said that users should be given a real choice to consent to advertising.

Companies face fines of up to 4% of their annual global turnover or €20 million, whichever is higher, in case a violation is proven. 

Meta has already been fined by the Irish data protection authority for breaches of the GDPR, which entered into force in 2018.

In 2023, the company received the highest GDPR fine ever issued, €1.2bn, for the company’s transfers of personal data to the US. Meta appealed against this penalty.

The complaints come as Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that the company would work with US President Donald Trump to push back on countries that are trying to rein in social media platforms.

This was echoed by the tech giant’s new global policy chief, Joel Kaplan, who said earlier in February that Europe’s regulatory action against US tech companies is pushing the continent “to the sidelines”.

Meta did not respond to a request for a comment.