A Seoul court has upheld fines of tens of billions of won imposed on Google and Meta by the Personal Information Protection Commission.

The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of the state agency on Thursday in a suit filed by the U.S. tech giant and the American multinational technology conglomerate in February 2023. 

Back in September 2022, the commission issued corrective orders and slapped fines of 69-point-two billion won on Google and nearly 30-point-eight billion won on Meta for violating privacy laws by collecting personal information without user consent and using it for online personalized advertising. 

That’s around 48 million U.S. dollars for Google and roughly 21 million dollars for Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram. 

The court told Google and Meta that they must get consent from users to collect, store and use their personal information. 

The commission said the court ruling proved its disciplinary actions were just.

Google, on its part, expressed regret over the court’s decision, adding that it will decide on a response after carefully reviewing the ruling.