The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today accepted an appeal by WhatsApp against the data protection decision that fined the social network 225 million euros, in Ireland, for violating privacy rules.
Considering that the decision of the European Data Protection Board (CEPD) “is, in fact, an act that cannot be challenged before the Union judge”, the CJEU returned the case to the General Court, to assess the merits of the appeal.
In the specific case, which concerns WhatsApp Ireland Ltd (WhatsApp), the ruling considers that “since the action for annulment brought by WhatsApp is admissible but the General Court has not yet examined the merits of the dispute, the Court of Justice annuls the order under appeal and refers the case to the General Court”.
At issue is the alleged violation by the North American giant WhatsApp, which belongs to Meta, of data protection rules in the EU.
At issue is a request by the Irish data protection authority for an opinion on the possible breach of privacy by WhasApp in 2018.
The EDPB issued a binding decision, in 2021, for all interested supervisory authorities, in which it declared, inter alia, that certain provisions of the GDPR were violated and obliged the Irish Supervisory Authority to change the planned corrective measures, including the amount of fines.
In this sense, Ireland adopted its final decision, addressed to WhatsApp, through which it imposed on it, in
in particular, fines totaling 225 million euros.
The North American company appealed and the General Court refused to accept the request, with the CJEU now admitting that the decision is open to challenge, annulling the order of the other instance.
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