Quitting Nigeria won’t shield Meta from legal obligations, says FCCPC

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has fired back at Meta Platforms Inc, warning the tech giant that its threat to exit Nigeria does not erase its legal responsibilities or liabilities under the Nigerian law.

Meta earlier today said it “may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”

Meta’s warning came after it lost a legal bid last week to overturn a $220 million fine imposed by the FCCPC for violations of data protection and consumer rights laws.

Reacting to this, FCCPC, in a statement on Saturday, described Meta’s threat as “a calculated” move aimed at “inducing negative public reaction and potentially pressuring the FCCPC to reconsider its decision.”

FCCPC noted that Meta threatening to leave Nigeria does not absolve Meta of liabilities for the outcome of a judicial process.

The Commission added that it found that Meta Parties engaged in multiple and repeated infringements of the FCCPA (2018) and the NDPR.

“These infringements included denying Nigerians the right to control their personal data, transferring and sharing Nigerian user data without authorisation, discriminating against Nigerian users compared to users in other jurisdictions and abusing their dominant market position by forcing unfair privacy policies,” FCCPC added.

“Interestingly, Meta had been fined for similar breaches in Texas ($1.5b) and only recently was asked to pay $1.3 Billion for violating E.U. Data Privacy Rules. Elsewhere in India, South Korea, France and Australia, Meta had faced varying penalties for similar breaches. But Meta never resorted to the blackmail of threatening to exit those countries. They obeyed.”