Poland’s deputy prime minister and digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski has asked the European Commission to fine Meta €250M, roughly $291M, over scams and false advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
“I also call on Meta to immediately introduce effective tools to eliminate scams, false advertising, and the promotion of illegal applications,” he said, in a country where the company is already fighting litigation over fraudulent ads.
Warsaw sent Meta nine written questions on 18 August, covering the scale of scam advertising in Poland, how the company detects deepfakes, how it verifies advertisers, and how long it takes to remove a reported ad, with seven days to respond.
Deputy minister Dariusz Standerski said at the time exactly what would happen next if the answers did not satisfy. The next letter, he said, would go to the Commission asking it to open proceedings under the Digital Services Act, and that is now what has happened.
Here is the constitutional oddity, though. Poland cannot fine Meta and cannot set the figure, because enforcement against very large online platforms sits exclusively with the Commission, so €250mn is a request rather than a penalty.
