Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has warned it may be forced to cease operations in Nigeria following a tribunal’s decision upholding nearly $290 million in fines for violating the country’s consumer protection and data privacy laws.
In July 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC)? imposed a $220 million fine on Meta. The tribunal has now reaffirmed the penalty and instructed Meta to pay an additional $35,000 to cover the cost of the investigation.
The fine is part of broader sanctions totaling $290.3 million. These include penalties of N60 billion ($37.5 million) from the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and $32.8 million from the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
According to a statement by FCCPC spokesperson Ondaje Ijagwu, “The tribunal ruled that the multiple actions by WhatsApp and Meta, for which the Commission made findings of violations, were correctly identified, and that the Commission did not err in making those findings.”
In court filings, Meta expressed concern over the implications of the tribunal’s ruling, stating: “The applicant may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”
Nigeria’s regulatory agencies accuse Meta of engaging in discriminatory practices, abusing its market dominance, sharing user data without consent, and infringing on users’ control over their personal data. FCCPC CEO Adamu Abdullahi noted that investigations conducted between May 2021 and December 2023 uncovered widespread invasive practices affecting Nigerian users.
Reacting to the original fine in July, a WhatsApp spokesperson said: “We disagree with this decision as well as the fine.”
With over 164 million internet subscriptions as of March, Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest digital markets. Meta’s platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — are among the most widely used in the country.
This case echoes Meta’s legal troubles in Europe, where it was fined €200 million by the European Union for breaching data privacy regulations through its controversial “pay or consent” model.