WhatsApp allowed to challenge €225m GDPR fine in EU courts
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Credit: Court of Justice of the European Union
WhatsApp Ireland can bring an EU court challenge to the imposition of a €225 million GDPR fine which followed an investigation by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled.
The General Court had previously held that any challenge to the 2021 fine should be heard firstly in the Irish courts.
However, the CJEU found that the binding decision of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) — which had told the DPC to increase the proposed fine from €30m-€50m to what was then a record €225 million — was open to challenge in the EU courts.
The CJEU said it would set aside the decision of the General Court, but was not in a position to give final judgment on the merits of WhatsApp’s action, and so would refer the case back to the General Court.
A spokesperson for WhatsApp said: “We welcome the court’s final judgment on the matter which upholds our argument that those businesses and people should be able to challenge decisions the EDPB makes against them, so that it can be held fully accountable by the EU courts.”
The €225 million fine was imposed in relation to an investigation launched by the DPC in December 2018 which focused on whether WhatsApp had discharged its GDPR transparency obligations.
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