Norway wants blanket EU ban on Meta’s ad tracking practices

• Meta’s behavioral ads were banned in Norway in July of this year.
• The ban was made by Norway’s data protection authority temporarily for an initial three-month period.
• The company was allowed to run other forms of targeted advising which don’t rely on tracking and profiling users.

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority has asked the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to make the ban on behavioural ads by Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to make the penalty permanent and widen it to the European Union.

Although Norway is not part of the European Union, it is part of the European single market and a widespread ban would make it applicable to the European Union and the European Economic Area.

While Norway’s data protection authority is not the company’s lead data supervisor in EU, it is able to make use of emergency powers contained in the General Data Protection Regulation to step in and take action on urgent concerns.

Meta had unsuccessfully sought a temporary injunction against the fine, with the company being fined one million crowns ($ 93,000) per day since Aug. 14.

A major decision from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission in January had found Meta’s ads processing to be in breach of EU data protection regulations.