The Ireland Data Protection Commission (DPC), main regulatory in the field of privacy in the European Union (EU), has reported this Thursday that it has fined whatsappireland with 225 million euros for infringing the protection regulations of
data.
It is the most quantious fine issued by the DPC and the second highest imposed on the Community Block, after the National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) of Luxembourg sanctioned Amazon last July with 746 million euros.
Both fines are related to non-compliance with the European Privacy Standards collected in the General Regulation of Data Protection (GDPR, for its acronym in English).
The research of the DPC on WhatsApp Ireland, which began three years ago, examined whether the messaging application, owned by the Facebook social network, acted with transparency when informing its users and not users about compliance with the rules of
The GDPR.
In this regard, the Irish Commission analyzed whether whatsapp offered transparent information about their private data management in this application and in other companies owned by Facebook, whose base of European operations is in Dublin.
WhatsApp Ireland today issued a statement in which it declares that it is not in accordance with the decision of the DPC and qualifies the fine “totally disproportionate”, while confirming that the sentence will resort.
The Irish Commission already presented last December to several community regulatory agencies a preliminary decision on this issue in which it imposed a fine of 50 million euros, but eight of these entities rejected the conclusions and requested to raise the amount.
The case was stopped to the European Data Protection Committee (EDPB), which ordered the DPC to increase the initial fine.
“In addition to the imposition of an administrative penalty, the DPC has included a reprimand together with an order aimed at what WHATSAPP adapts its processes to the regulations through the adoption of several specific corrective measures,” the Commission explained in the statement of its judgment.
According to experts, technology can present an appeal before the High Court Irish or before the European Court of Justice, where it will surely question the amount of the fine.
In accordance with Community legislation, penalties in case of non-compliance are a maximum of 20 million euros or up to 4% of the company’s global billing the previous year.
