Meta’s popular messaging platform WhatsApp (META) on Tuesday won backing from Europe’s top court to challenge a fine that was increased to €225M ($268M) by the Data Protection Commission in Ireland, according to a report by Reuters.
The DPC penalized WhatsApp following complaints about its use of personal data in the country, later bumping up the fine it imposed after the European Data Protection Board intervened in 2021, the report said.
Meta had lost its initial appeal against the higher penalty after judges at a lower tribunal said it had no legal standing to sue the authority, as the EDPB’s decision was directed to the Irish watchdog and not to the company.
The Court of Justice of the European Union disagreed, saying that WhatsApp’s action is admissible and telling the lower tribunal to examine the case on its merits.
“The EDPB’s decision is indeed an act open to challenge before the Courts of the European Union,” the Luxembourg-based institution said.
“That decision was of direct concern to WhatsApp, since it brought about a distinct change in the legal position of that undertaking, without leaving any discretion to its addressees,” judges said.
A WhatsApp spokesperson welcomed the judgment.
“(It) 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 DPC has only collected €17.5M of the more than €4B in fines imposed on large tech companies for GDPR breaches since 2020 due to all but two of its completed investigations being subjected to lengthy legal challenges.
With many of the fines increased by similar EDPB interventions, a number of the appeals can only progress once there is clarity from the European courts on how WhatsApp’s 2021 penalty was calculated.
The case is C-97/23P WhatsApp Ireland v. EDPB.