17. January 2023
On January 12th, 2023, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) issued a decision criticizing the Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s attempt to narrow the scope of an investigation in Facebook’s (a part of American tech giant Meta Inc.).
Furthermore, the EDPB found that the Commissioner had ignored a key element arising from a complaint filed in Austria in 2018: Meta Inc. had adapted its terms and conditions to the new GDPR rules in order to be compliant with the European regulation. This resulted in user consent becoming a requirement for continued use of the service.
The complaint argued that this could amount to forced consent. However, the Data Protection Commissioner disagreed and stated that the tech company can rely on the argument that it is fulfilling a contract with its users to provide personalized ads, although breaching transparency obligations.
The EDPB ordered the Commission to reverse its legal position on Meta Inc.’s data collection and processing as its contractual basis for data collection breached EU law.
Furthermore, the EDPB stated that the Irish Data Protection Commission failed to clearly establish the legal basis of data collection generally, and also failed to investigate specific concerns in the matter of sensitive information.
20. November 2020
During its 41st plenary session, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted by a two-thirds majority of its members its first dispute resolution decision under Art. 65 GDPR regarding Twitter International Company. The binding decision aims to resolve a dispute arisen from a draft decision by the Irish supervisory authority, being the lead supervisory authority in that case, and subsequent relevant and reasoned objections raised by several authorities concerned.
The Irish supervisory authority prepared a draft decision following an own-initiative investigation into Twitter International Company, after the company had notified the Irish supervisory authority of a personal data breach on January 8th, 2019. According to Art. 60 (3) GDPR, the Irish supervisory authority submitted its draft decision to the other authorities concerned in May 2020, which had the opportunity to express their objections within a period of four weeks afterwards. They referred to, inter alia, violations of the GDPR identified by the lead supervisory authority, the role of Twitter International Company as the sole data controller, and the quantification of the proposed fine.
Due to the fact that the lead supervisory authority rejected the objections and/or considered them not to be “relevant and reasoned”, it submitted the matter to the EDPB pursuant to Art. 60 (4) GDPR, thus initiating the dispute resolution procedure.
Thereupon, the completeness of the file was evaluated, that led to the institution of legal proceedings stated in Art. 65 GDPR on September 8th, 2020. In accordance with Art. 65 (3) GDPR and in conjunction with Art. 11.4 of the EDPB Rules of Procedure, the default time period of one month was extended by a further month on account of the complexity of the subject-matter.
On November 9th, 2020, the EDPB adopted its binding decision and will shortly notify it to the Irish supervisory authority, which, on the other hand, will issue a final decision. It will be addressed to the data controller without undue delay and at the latest by one month after the EDPB has notified its decision. In compliance with the requirements of Art. 65 (6) GDPR, the lead supervisory authority shall inform the EDPB of the date when its final decision is notified respectively to the controller. After that, the EDPB decision will be published on its website.
