Australian court orders Meta subsidiaries to pay $14 million over data use

On Wednesday, Australia's Federal Court ordered two Meta subsidiaries to pay $14 million after an over two and a half year legal battle instigated by the country’s competition regulator found the pair misled users on the data collection of a now defunct VPN app. The Zuckerberg companies were ordered to pay $20 million …

[ChoHag]

They'll keep doing it while it keeps working.

[Phil O'Sophical]

It's just whac-a-mole, the fines are peanuts so it won't stop until someone like Zuckerberg does jail time for contempt of court.

[big_D]

Keep doing it, until the fines & lawyers cost more than doing it right...

[The BigYin]

Until the fines are a percetange of global, gross income they will never be enough.

[jonathan keith]

.. and years of guaranteed jail time for top-level senior execs. No plea bargains.

[Alumoi]

Double digit percentage, starting at 90%, to be payed in 24 hours after sentencing. From their own funds not from loans.

[MOH]

"Meta told The Register that Facebook Israel and Onavo jointly proposed the penalty to the court, which it approved."

Wtf?? So if I get charged with assault in Zuckerberg, can I propose the penalty of a parade in my honour?

[Fred Daggy]

Wot?

Abraham said in court documents the fine "carries with it a sufficient sting to ensure that the penalty amount is not such as to be regarded by the parties or others as simply an acceptable cost of doing business."

I think the wrong unit of measure was used. Million? Try Billion THEN you will have their undivided attention. I am sure that dishing out huge fines does two things (1) ensure sufficient attention is paid by large organisations to the needs of politicians and (2) that the same money can be used to ensure that there is enough pork to stuff in each barrel to ensure constant re-election and a continued administration of point 1.

[Sora2566]

Re: Wot?

The worse part is that the court *could* have asked for billion dollar fines - the law allowed them to issue a million-dollar fine *per infraction*.