[mattashii]

Judgement (dutch): https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025...

The judgement requires Meta to change their platforms within 2 weeks so that the user's choice is persistent. If not implemented in 2 weeks, there is a daily penalty of €100'000, up to a maximum of €5 million.

[lucumo]

Note that the penalty for non-compliance will be forfeited to Bits of Freedom. It's not like a traffic fine that has to be paid to the government.

In Dutch this is called a "last onder dwangsom": an injuctive order enforced by a conditional fine.

[lucumo]

As an addition, 5 million is a lot for BoF. At the end of 2024 their balance was a little over 1.8 million EUR. Even a single day's worth of coercive fine (100k EUR) would be meaningful to them.

Their annual report is online at https://2024.bitsoffreedom.nl/en/ for people who want to learn more.

[pettertb]

Fines up to 5 million Euros against meta

Now, go away, or I shall taunt you a second time-a!

[N70Phone]

> Now, go away, or I shall taunt you a second time-a!

That is the implication. The point of the first fine isn't to actually hurt Meta. It's to signal that there will be consequences, that the excuse of "but we thought it was legal" is gone now and give them one final chance to get their act together.

It's to pre-emptively clear away any possibility for Meta to appeal to either higher courts or the court of public opinion that they're being treated unfairly. Which they would do if you immediately hit them with a say, €5 billion fine.

[FranzFerdiNaN]

I’m almost hoping Facebook is going to refuse to change, a couple million to BoF would a very nice gift to them.

[belter]

One less principal engineer signing bonus ...:-)

[mglazebrook]

I doubt they will meet the deadline or care over 5mill. It just is pennies to them.

[inetknght]

The thing about ignoring courts' orders is... well, courts don't exactly look favorably on people who ignore them. Looking forward to court's round 2, then.

[dmd]

The judge: five .... MEEEIIILLIONNNN ... euros!

Meta: lol

[jacooper]

Lol 5 million is pocket change for meta, wtf are these courts doing?

[maccard]

The goal isn’t to penalize, it’s to get them to comply.

[jeroenhd]

This is 5 million for this particular court case. Nothing is preventing others from filing their own, very similar cases. If Meta ignores the court's decision, a second lawsuit may end much worse for them.

Though, practically speaking, America has been threatening to make the trade war they started much worse for the EU if it tried to enforce things like DSA and GDPR fines. We'll have to see how enforceable these laws really are.

[RobotToaster]

It also means that after 50 days there's basically no incentive to comply.

[tantalor]

Maybe it's per user?

[__MatrixMan__]

Fines in general aren't effective.

Perhaps this case doesn't warrant it, but generally speaking I'd like to see allocating jailtime across the top shareholders as an option.

If my dog bites somebody, I'm on the hook, it should be no different with a company.

[mrtksn]

That how you build up a case for transferring control. First its "lol, 5m is a pocket change" and it becomes argument of politicians for tighter control over Meta. Then Zuck says they are trying to make the world a better place but it doesn't stick, people side with the politician who is building a career by sticking it to Meta.

So not entirely useless.

[saubeidl]

I'm not sure if you're arguing for more or less control being transferred from Meta towards the state, but I agree with your observation.