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The Turkish competition board penalized Meta Platforms $38.2 million after two separate investigations into data-sharing on its Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads platforms.
In December, the board opened an investigation into Meta for allegedly violating competition law by integrating its social media sites Threads and Instagram.
In March, the board placed an interim restriction on Meta to limit data sharing between the two sites.
Meta announced last month that it would temporarily stop down Threads in Turkey to comply with the interim decision.
The board announced on Wednesday that it had levied a $27.8 million fine for the compliance process and investigations into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, as well as an extra $10.4 million charge for a separate examination into Threads.
According to the board resolution, users will be allowed to mix personal data from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp with their own authorization, and they will be notified about data usage.
Users will be able to adjust their settings later, if necessary, through an “accounts center” on the platforms, according to the announcement. In January, the board fined Meta $160,000 per day for failing to produce adequate documents during another previous probe.
In March, it assessed a daily fee of roughly $150,000 for a data-sharing notification message.
Both penalties expired on May 3.
In 2022, the board also penalized Meta more than $10 million for breaking competition laws.
