{"id":135245,"date":"2025-10-21T03:50:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135245\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T03:50:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:50:21","slug":"facebook-owner-asked-government-to-intervene-on-eu-tech-regulations-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135245\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook owner asked Government to \u2018intervene\u2019 on EU tech regulations \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> owner Meta <\/a>asked the Government to \u201cintervene\u201d on its behalf in Brussels against European Union regulations that saw the social media giant handed a \u20ac200 million fine recently, records show. <\/p>\n

Meta has taken aim at new EU digital rules that seek to regulate the power of big tech players and prevent them from abusing their dominant positions in the online sphere to stifle competition. <\/p>\n

Meta called on the Government to \u201cintervene\u201d and push back against the regulations, \u201cto minimise the harm done to Europe,\u201d in a May 7th email to Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke. <\/p>\n

The correspondence, seen by The Irish Times, lashed out at the \u201cdeeply interventionist\u201d EU rules, for forcing the social media multinational to change aspects of its business model. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year Meta was handed a \u20ac200 million fine by the European Commission<\/a>, the EU\u2019s executive arm that proposes and enforces EU laws. <\/p>\n

Brussels regulators fined Meta over its \u201cconsent or pay\u201d model \u2013 charging users a monthly subscription if they refused to allow the company to use their personal data to better target online ads.<\/p>\n

The commission ruled that Meta did not give Facebook or Instagram users enough freedom to opt for a service that used less of their personal data, without paying. <\/p>\n

The US tech giant was hit with the fine in April, following an investigation undertaken by the commission under the bloc\u2019s Digital Markets Act. <\/p>\n

Dualta \u00d3 Broin, Meta\u2019s top lobbyist in Ireland, wrote to Mr Burke the day the EU fine was announced. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0EU fines Apple and Meta combined \u20ac700mOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe disagree with this decision and we will appeal. Today\u2019s decision imposes a fine of \u20ac200m and is likely to require Meta to once again change its products to meet a new set of regulatory demands, which will exacerbate economic implications for European advertisers,\u201d the April 23rd email said. <\/p>\n

Meta accused the EU executive body of continuing down a \u201cnegative path\u201d that would erode the value of targeted online advertisements for European businesses. <\/p>\n

In further correspondence, Mr \u00d3 Broin asked the Government to put pressure on the commission to row back. \u201cWe are urging member states to intervene to minimise the harm done to Europe,\u201d the May 7th email stated. <\/p>\n

Meta warned Mr Burke that businesses, charities, public bodies \u201cand even political parties\u201d would have to spend much more money on online advertisements to have the same impact, as a result of the EU ruling. <\/p>\n

The US tech multinational argued for a pause on any new regulation of the tech sector, during a March 5th meeting with Mr Burke in Meta\u2019s Irish headquarters. Notes of the meeting say Meta pushed for existing laws and rules to be simplified. <\/p>\n

The company suggested Ireland could focus on \u201cmaking the EU better for business\u201d when the Government takes over the council of the EU presidency next year, a deal-making role that helps set the agenda in Brussels. <\/p>\n

Mr Burke took note of the company\u2019s points and said the Programme for Government included commitments to \u201cremove unnecessary administrative burdens\u201d on businesses, minutes of the discussion state. <\/p>\n

In a further sit-down with Irish officials, Meta lobbyists again stressed the need to cut down on the \u201cadministrative overburden\u201d digital regulations were putting on social media firms. <\/p>\n

EU regulations should not be allowed to harm Europe\u2019s economic competitiveness, the company said, according to minutes of the September 22nd meeting. Meta asked to be given a \u201csingle point of contact\u201d within the Government, who would be across all tech rules. <\/p>\n

The correspondence and minutes of meetings were released to The Irish Times in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook and Instagram owner Meta asked the Government to \u201cintervene\u201d on its behalf in Brussels against European Union…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,5766,877,19,876,17,1722,4772],"class_list":{"0":"post-135245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-european-commission","11":"tag-facebook","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-instagram","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-meta","16":"tag-peter-burke"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}