Meta has been fined an additional 5.5 million euros ($5.9 million) for breaching EU data protection regulations with instant messaging platform WhatsApp, Ireland’s regulator announced.
Social media giant Meta has been fined an additional 5.5 million euros ($5.9 million) for breaching EU data protection regulations with instant messaging platform WhatsApp, the regulator of… Ireland announced on Thursday.
The penalty after the €390 million fine is much larger for Meta’s Instagram and Facebook platforms two weeks ago after they were found to have violated similar EU rules.
In its new decision, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) found the group had acted “in violation of its obligations related to transparency”, the watchdog said in a statement.
In addition, Meta relied on incorrect legal grounds “to process personal data for the purpose of improving service and security,” the DPC added, giving the team six months to comply.
Fines imposed by the Irish regulator for Meta — along with the WE high-tech company — with European headquarters in Dublin.
In response on Thursday, Meta said it opposes the DPC’s decision and will seek to overturn it.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said: “We strongly believe that the way the service operates is technically and legally compliant.
“We disagree with this decision and we plan to appeal.”
The breaches are similar to those explained in the regulator’s action against Meta earlier in January.
But the previous decision also charged meta platform violation of the rules on the processing of personal data for the purpose of targeted advertising.
In that case, the company co-founded by social media mogul Mark Zuckerberg has only three months to meet Irish regulatory compliance.
Meta announced its intention to appeal the January 4 decision, adding that the regulatory ruling does not prevent targeted or personalized advertising.
The DPC said its recent fine was significantly less because of a 225 million euro fine for WhatsApp for “violating this and other transparency obligations during the same period”.
Thursday’s Whatsapp fine was also much lower as it was unrelated to targeted advertising.
The Irish regulator fined Meta 405 million euros in September for failing to process the data of minors and 265 million euros in November for not adequately protecting users’ data.
This latest round of fines comes after the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), the EU’s data protection regulator, passed three binding decisions in early December.
The Vienna-based NOYB security team, which filed three complaints against Meta in 2018, alleges social media giant in reinterpreting consent as a civil law contract, making it impossible for users to opt out of targeted advertising.
In response to Thursday’s news, NOYB criticized the “small” scale of the latest fine — and criticized the DPC for ignoring how WhatsApp shares data within the group for advertising purposes.
“We were amazed at how the DPC simply ignored the heart of the case after a 4.5-year procedure,” said Max Schrems, founder of NOYB.
In October 2021, the Irish authorities issued a draft decision to verify the legal basis used by this group and propose a fine of up to 36 million euros for violations of the law. Facebook and up to 23 million euros to Instagram for their lack of transparency.
France’s CNIL regulator and other European bodies disagreed with the draft sanction, which they deemed too low.
They have asked the EDPB to arbitrate the dispute with the EU data regulator to make a decision in their favor.
The EDPB has also asked the Irish regulator to investigate Meta’s use of personal data.
However, in its statement, the DPC declined to say that the EU body does not have the authority to “direct an authority to engage in an open-ended and speculative investigation”.
The regulator said it would seek to rescind the EDPB’s request before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
