(IN-21-4-2)

Date of Decision: 25 November 2022

On 25 November 2022, the Data Protection Commission (the DPC) adopted a decision to impose a fine of €265 million and to exercise other corrective powers on Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (formerly Facebook Ireland Limited) (Meta Platforms).

The DPC commenced this inquiry on 14 April 2021, on foot of media reports into the discovery of a collated dataset of Facebook personal data that had been made available on the internet. The scope of inquiry concerned an examination and assessment of the Facebook Search, Facebook Messenger Contact Importer and Instagram Contact Importer tools in relation to processing carried out by Meta Platforms during the period between 25 May 2018 and September 2019. The material issues in this inquiry concerned questions of compliance with the GDPR obligation for Data Protection by Design and Default. The DPC examined the implementation of technical and organisational measures pursuant to Article 25 GDPR (which deals with this concept).

There was a comprehensive inquiry process. As the processing under examination constituted “cross-border” processing, the DPC’s decision was subject to the cooperation and consistency mechanism outlined in Article 60 GDPR and all of the other European supervisory authorities were engaged. Those supervisory authorities agreed with the decision of the Data Protection Commission. Accordingly, the DPC’s decision represents the collective views of both the DPC and its counterpart supervisory authorities throughout the EU.

The decision, which was adopted on Friday, 25 November 2022, records findings of infringement of Articles 25(1) and 25(2) GDPR. The decision imposed a reprimand and an order requiring Meta Platforms to bring its processing into compliance by taking a range of specified remedial actions within a particular timeframe. In addition, the decision has imposed administrative fines totalling €265 million on Meta Platforms.

You can download the full decision at this link: Inquiry concerning Meta Dataset - November 2022 (PDF, 1.1 MB).