Seoul, March 13 South Korea's top court on Thursday rejected social media giant Meta's appeal against a 6.7 billion-won ($4.6 million) fine imposed by the data protection watchdog for sharing user information without their consent, judicial sources said.
In November 2020, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) fined Meta, formerly known as Facebook, after its probe found that the personal information of at least 3.3 million South Korean users had been provided to third parties without their knowledge from May 2012 to June 2018, reports Yonhap news agency.
In response, Meta filed a lawsuit in March 2021, disputing the fine, claiming the information sharing was made upon the users' agreement and it did not induce them to agree.
The Supreme Court, however, found the PIPC's measures lawful and dismissed the case, upholding lower court rulings made in October 2023 and September last year, according to the sources.
With the top court's ruling, the PIPC said it would proceed with enforcing corrective measures, which had been suspended due to the ongoing lawsuit.
Last year, Meta Platforms Ireland lost a legal battle to defy the South Korean data protection watchdog's decision to slap a fine for providing users' personal information to other operators without consent.
Meta then filed a complaint against the ruling, claiming the information sharing was made upon the users' agreement and it did not induce them to do so.
According to the PIPC's investigation, the personal information of a user's Facebook friends was provided to other operators without their knowledge when someone uses another operator's service through Facebook login.
The compromised information included their academic background, family and marriage status.
The watchdog also said Meta had not been cooperating with the probe by belatedly submitting data and providing false documents.
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