Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is currently consulting on the size of the fine with other European data regulators, according to a report from Politico, which says the fine is likely to fall between €30m and €50m.
Facebook’s
messaging service WhatsApp is reported to be facing a fine of up to €50m for
data protection breaches under Europe’s GDPR.
The
Irish regulator has been investigating WhatsApp for compliance with GDPR
transparency requirements since 2018, and in particular whether it informed
users that their data could be shared with owner Facebook.
As
lead supervisor in the cross-border WhatsApp case, the Irish Data Protection
Commission confirmed it sent draft proposals on GDPR enforcement action to
Europe’s other data protection regulators just before Christmas.
Ireland’s
Data Protection Commission fined Twitter €450,000 in December after it failed
to notify the regulator of a data breach within the GDPR deadline. Speaking at
an event in Dublin last month, deputy commissioner John O’Dwyer said WhatsApp
would face a far larger fine because of the nature of the breaches.
Facebook
has set aside €300m for regulatory fines in Europe this year and almost €78m
for WhatsApp. WhatsApp is reported to have lost as many as 20 million users in
the past few weeks after it made clear its intention to share more data from
users outside the EU with Facebook.
Google
currently holds the record for the largest GDPR fine at €50m, levied by French
regulator CNIL in 2019.
CRE
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