The Court of Justice of the European Union said in a statement it had dismissed as inadmissible an action brought by WhatsApp against a decision of the European Data Protection Board.
It added that the validity of the EDPB’s decision may, however, be challenged before the national court, which is able to make a request to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.
The messaging service, owned by Meta Platform Inc., had accused the data protection watchdog of operating beyond the powers given to it in law after its interventions led to a €225mln fine for the company.
The fine was imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) in August 2021, but only after the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) had directed the DPC to make changes relating to the enforcement action to be taken against WhatsApp under GDPR legislation.
WhatsApp raised formal legal proceedings challenging the EDPB’s intervention but these were dismissed today.