By AFP

A Norway court on Wednesday rejected US tech giant Meta’s request to defer a ban on behavioural marketing based on users’ personal information, which has landed it a heavy fine in the country.

Since August 14, Meta has been incurring a fine of one million kroner ($97,000) per day of non-compliance under an order issued by the Norwegian data protection agency Datatilsynet.

It says Meta has not complied with a July 14 ban on sending Facebook and Instagram users targeted advertisements based on their personal data, which the social media platform collects without their explicit consent.

Meta wants the ban suspended and has pointed to a similar legal case in Ireland, where its European headquarters is based.

In January, the Irish regulator — acting on behalf of the EU — slapped Meta with heavy fines totalling 390 million euros for breaching EU personal data laws on Facebook and Instagram.

On August 1, the social media giant said it would ask users in the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland to give their consent before allowing targeted advertising on its networks.

But the Norwegian regulator has said that is insufficient, and questioned what would happen with the data already collected over several years.

Its director, Line Coll, on Wednesday hailed the Oslo court’s decision as “a great victory for the protection of privacy”.

The regulator said it was considering bringing the case to the European Data Protection Board to get the ban extended across Europe.