WhatsApp wins right to challenge €225m Irish privacy fine

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

WhatsApp has won the right to challenge a €225 million fine imposed by the Irish data regulator, in a legal victory for the Meta-owned messaging app.

The European Court of Justice on Tuesday said WhatsApp had a right to contest the penalty, overturning the decision of a lower court and extending a five-year legal battle.

The dispute stems from a 2021 decision that saw the Irish Data Protection Commission fine WhatsApp €225 million for breaking the European Union’s data privacy law by not telling its users how it was sharing their data with its parent company Facebook.

The fine followed an investigation that started in December 2018 into WhatsApp’s compliance with its obligation to provide information with regard to individuals under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). WhatsApp had been seeking to annul that decision.

Europe’s top court on Tuesday said WhatsApp’s legal case was “admissible”, allowing the US tech giant to continue to challenge the penalty.

“The Court refers the case back to the General Court for it to rule on the merits, including on whether WhatsApp infringed the relevant provisions of the GDPR,” the ECJ said in a statement.

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WhatsApp called the European Data Protection Board, which had intervened in the investigation, an “unelected authority whose decisions can directly impact businesses and people across the EU”.

“We welcome the Court’s final judgment on the matter which 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,” it added.

The case is one of several ongoing challenges by US Big Tech companies against the EU’s digital rule book. Several groups are also challenging decisions under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which aims to curb the power of big digital platforms, and Digital Services Act, which polices content online.

Meta has increasingly criticised the EU’s digital rule book over the past year, comparing EU fines under the DMA with tariffs and handicaps for US companies operating in Europe. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026