Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) head Helen Dixon said on Tuesday that financial penalties for companies that do not comply with European data protection rules, such as a €1.2 billion fine for Meta, not effective in changing company policy and opined that suspending affected data transfers would be more beneficial.

“As you know, the data center respectfully disagree with a proposal to impose a penalty. In our opinion, in order to achieve meaningful changes in this area, a suspension of transmission (of data) is required. No administrative sanctions can guarantee the necessary exchange rate,” Dixon told the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee.

The DPC reported on Monday that it has introduced a fine of EUR 1,200,000,000 (approximately USD 1,299,000,000) to Meta for violating the privacy of its users through its social network Facebook, the largest economic sanction imposed in the European Union (EU) on a multinational company for data protection violations.

Dixon stressed that “the analysis and findings presented by the DPC” regarding the illegality of data transfers from Meta “were adopted in full and without any changes”, as was a proposal to order them to suspend transfers of data from the EU to the US for five months, although “several authorities have called for additional remedial measures, including a hefty fine.”

Dixon stressed that the DPC’s 2022 activity report highlights “the danger of equating large monetary fines with with an effective law enforcement strategy.”

The head of the KDP admitted that the presiding organization would prefer to limit the sanction and questioned the effectiveness of fines, defended the work of the organization he leads, and stressed that no other European data protection authority develops and completes investigations to the same level as Ireland’s.