Nigeria fines Meta $220 million for violating consumer, data laws

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo and and MacDonald Dzirutwe

ABUJA (Reuters) -Nigeria fined Meta Platforms $220 million, its competition watchdog said on Friday, after investigations showed data-sharing on social platforms violated local consumer, data protection and privacy laws.

Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) said Meta appropriated the data of Nigerian users on its platforms without their consent, abused its market dominance by forcing exploitative privacy policies on users, and meted out discriminatory and disparate treatment on Nigerians, compared with other jurisdictions with similar regulations.

Meta did not immediately comment, but the FCCPC said in a statement that the company had provided some documents and have retained counsels who have met and engaged with the agency.

FCCPC chief Adamu Abdullahi said the investigations were jointly held with Nigeria's Data Protection Commission and spanned over 38 months.

The investigations found Meta policies don't allow users the option or opportunity to self-determine or withhold consent to the gathering, use, and sharing of personal data, Abdullahi said.

"The totality of the investigation has concluded that Meta over the protracted period of time has engaged in conduct that constituted multiple and repeated, as well as continuing infringements... particularly, but not limited to abusive, and invasive practices against data subjects in Nigeria," Abdullahi said.

"Being satisfied with the significant evidence on the record, and that Meta has been provided every opportunity to articulate any position, representations, refutations, explanations or defences of their conduct, the Commission have now entered a final order and issued a penalty against Meta," Abdullahi said.

The final order mandates steps and actions Meta must take to comply with local laws, Abdullahi said.

In May, Turkey's competition board fined Meta 1.2 billion lira following investigations on data-sharing on its Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp platforms.

Meta has faced pushback in Europe and other jurisdictions over alleged breaches of data protection laws. Meta's plan to use personal data to train its artificial intelligence models without seeking consent has come under fire in Europe.

Meanwhile, South Africa's competition watchdog have announced plans to investigate whether digital platforms, including Meta unfairly compete with news publishers by using their content to generate ad revenue.

(Editing by Louise Heavens and Rod Nickel)