Milano: Preliminary investigations concluded and notification to Meta Platforms Ireland, owner of Facebook and Instagram

The Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Milano yesterday notified the notice of conclusion of the preliminary investigations against the Legal Representatives of the Irish company MID PLATFORMS IRELAND LIMITED, owner of the social networks “Facebook"and "Instagram “, the subject of investigations delegated to the military of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Milano.

Through the investigative activities carried out, it was verified that the META Group, in order to allow users to use its software and related digital services, acquire and manage, for commercial purposes, data, personal information and interactions on the platforms of each member, so as to establish with the users of the service - by virtue of the direct connection in terms of quantitative and qualitative proportionality between the opposing services - a relationship of a natural nature synallagmatic, brought back, for the purposes of the application of the Value Added Tax, within the regulatory framework set out in Article 11 of Presidential Decree no. 63 3/72, as permutation operation.

The investigations have allowed us to highlight the analytical elements of fact and law suitable to support the configuration, by the Legal Representatives of the company META PLATFORMS IRELAND LIMITED, the entity providing the service and owner of the processing of the data provided by the user, of the crime of "Failure to declare” for VAT purposes pursuant to Article 5, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree no. 74/2000 for the tax periods by 2015 to 2021, as it would have failed to declare a taxable amount of €3.989.197.744,05, which corresponds to an evaded Value Added Tax amounting to Euro 887.623.503,69.

The non-free nature of the services offered by META had already been affirmed by the Italian Competition and Market Authority (AGCM, prov. no. 27432 of 2018), by the TAR Lazio (Judgment no. 260 of 2020) and by the Council of State (Judgment no. 2631 of 2021) – as well as by authoritative doctrine – and has been confirmed by the inspection activities of the Guardia di Finanza, in the documents of the Revenue Agency and finally in the results of the criminal investigation, demonstrating the substantial convergence on the point by the various branches of the State and the effective collaboration between the Judicial Authority, the Guardia di Finanza and the Revenue Agency in ensuring compliance with the tax laws designed to protect the public budget.