European Data Protection Board adopts a dispute resolution decision in the context of Instagram

In early December 2021, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) in its capacity as lead supervisory authority responsible for overseeing Instagram (meta) sent a draft decision to other European supervisory authorities in line with Art. 60 (3) GDPR. In this draft decision, the DPC expressed its concern with instagram’s compliance with several GDPR provisions, notably Art. 5(1)(a) and (c), 6(1), 12(1), 13, 24, 25 and 35 GDPR.

The lead supervisor authority specifically raised the issue of the public disclosure of children’s personal data, such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, due to their use of the Instagram business account feature.

The respective Supervisory Authorities, however, did not fully agree with the draft decision and issued objections in accordance with Art. 60(4) GDPR. Unable to find common ground on some of the objections, Art. 65(1) (a) GDPR laying down the dispute resolution procedure, became applicable. Consequently, the lead supervisory authority, the DPC, was required to ask the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to adopt a binding decision.

On July 29, 2022, the EDPB announced that it had adopted a dispute resolution decision following these objections. Now, it is upon the DPC to adopt its final decision and to communicate it to the controller. The DPC has one month to issue its final decision, albeit it should be based on the EDPB decision.