DPC’s Meta fine, Fota resort happy with break even, and handbags as an investment

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk


The Data Protection Commission yesterday imposed a €265 million fine on Facebook owner Meta for violating European privacy rules in a move that takes total penalties against the company to €910 million in 14 months. Arthur Beesley reports.

Any hospitality business that breaks even this year and next against the backdrop of soaring energy costs and other inflationary pressures will be in a “good place” for the future, John O’Flynn, general manager of the five-star Fota Island Resort in east Cork, tells Ciarán Hancock.

In personal finance, Fiona Reddan discovers that certain designer handbags can be a lucrative investment over time, if handled carefully.

In the second of our personal finance Q&As this week, a reader wonders if they will face a tax bill by giving an apartment that was previously rented out to their sick child. Dominic Coyle offers some guidance. If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your pocket try signing up to On the Money, the new weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers. You can read the latest edition of the newsletter here.

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Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe will seek approval from the Cabinet today to allow bailed-out banks to pay bonuses of up to €20,000 and put lenders on a path to free themselves from executive pay restrictions. Joe Brennan has the story.

European flight numbers will remain below 2019 (pre-Covid) totals next year, but observers hope for shorter queues and fewer delays, writes Barry O’Halloran.

The use of data analytics could help businesses keep pace with the increasingly uncertain trading environment in which risks are developing “at warp speed” following the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a leading accountancy body has said. Ian Curran has the details.

Why should any entrust their personal data to Meta given the growing list of fines being levied on the social media giant by regulators? Cantillon ponders this important question.

In her media and marketing column, Laura Slattery examines the growing trend of mega-billionaires wanting us to fall for their “everything” super apps. She’s not a fan.

In Me & My Money, Rachel Forbes, founder and managing director of House of EQ, explains how she is “cognisant” that money “does not buy happiness”, but “striving for wealth accumulation is nothing to shy away from”. She spoke with Tony Clayton-Lea.

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