On October 30, 2019, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office issued a statement confirming that it had reached an agreement with Facebook Inc. and Facebook Ireland Limited to resolve an investigation into the misuse of personal data in political campaigns.
The investigation began in 2017, and resulted in the issuance of a £500,000 monetary penalty notice pursuant to Section 55A of the Data Protection Act 1998 in October 2018. This was appealed by Facebook to the First Tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber), which issued an interim decision in Facebook’s favor; that decision was appealed by the ICO in September 2019.
Now, the parties have reached a settlement, and will withdraw their appeals. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Facebook will pay the monetary penalty but will not admit to liability. The agreement also provides that Facebook may retain documents disclosed by the ICO for purposes of its investigation of issues involving Cambridge Analytica.