The regulator named is the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, Italy’s privacy watchdog.
The reported figure is €805 million. That is a very specific number to attach to a penalty that has no paper trail yet.
Meta has not received any official Garante announcement confirming the cited penalty. No regulatory filing or press release has been found tying the Garante to a fine of this size on this issue.
The verification gap
Searches for official announcements and credible reporting on the fine came up empty as of November 14, 2026.
Recent Italian and EU actions involving Meta have focused on advertising consent, the use of artificial intelligence in services like WhatsApp, and compliance with various data laws. Photo and video consent on Android devices has not been a documented focus. The Garante has handed out smaller fines and taken other enforcement steps, but none of them have been on similar photo or video consent topics.
Italy’s regulator has previously enforced penalties, but none of them come anywhere close to €805 million.
Meta’s European rap sheet
The largest confirmed privacy fine against Meta came from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission. In May 2023, the DPC fined the company €1.2 billion over unlawful transfers of EU users’ data to the US. Meta is appealing that decision.
In April 2025, the European Commission fined Meta €200 million under the Digital Markets Act. The issue was its “consent or pay” model, which regulators deemed non-compliant. That model asked users to either agree to data-driven advertising or pay for an alternative.
Against those benchmarks, the reported Italian fine would land in an awkward spot. At €805 million, it would sit below the €1.2 billion Irish penalty but come in at more than four times the €200 million DMA fine.
What this means
Until the Garante or Meta says something on the record, the €805 million figure is best treated as unconfirmed.
Between the appealed Irish ruling and the DMA penalty, Meta is already fighting on several European fronts at once. Each of those cases touches the same nerve: how Meta gets permission to use people’s data. Whether it is cross-border transfers, ad targeting, or AI features in WhatsApp, consent keeps showing up as the central question.
A real enforcement action of this size would carry a formal decision, a legal rationale, and almost certainly an appeal from Meta.
The appeal of the €1.2 billion Irish fine and Meta’s adjustments under the Digital Markets Act will shape its regulatory costs far more predictably than an unconfirmed report. The €805 million figure remains a number waiting for a source.
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