Ireland on Thursday imposed a 225-euro WhatsApp fine on a WhatsApp messaging company for violating EU data privacy laws after European regulators demanded that the fine be increased.
Ireland has been asked to “scrutinize and increase its proposed fine on the basis of a number of factors … and following this re-examination the DPC has imposed a fine of 225 million euros on WhatsApp,” said Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC).
The fine, valued at $ 267 million, was handed over by the DPC as the country manages Facebook headquarters in Europe.
With Ireland hosting the regional headquarters of multi-tech players such as Apple, Google and Twitter, the DPC is focusing more on police adherence to the EU’s GDPR data rights constitution.
The organization launched a WhatsApp investigation in December 2018 to test whether the messaging app “fulfills its GDPR transparency obligations” in terms of telling users how their data will be used.
This includes information provided about the processing of information between WhatsApp and other Facebook companies.
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The DPC submitted its first decision to other European regulators (CSAs) – seeking their approval – in December 2020 but received eight objections from them.
Unable to reach an agreement, a dispute resolution process was launched in June.
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted a binding decision last month ordering the DPC to increase the fine.
The DPC also “imposed a warning and a WhatsApp order to activate its compliance by taking a number of corrective measures.”
