The Court of Appeal (CoA) has overturned a decision halting a challenge by Meta to more than €265 million fines imposed on it by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) pending the outcome of a related case by a European Union court.
The decision means proceedings in Ireland by Meta over the fines for breaches of EU privacy rules on personal information must now go ahead regardless of when the EU court makes its decision.
The CoA noted, however, the EU decision is due at the end of this month.
Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, which is the data controller for Facebook and has its European headquarters in Ireland, had brought a statutory appeal over the fines the DPC imposed for breach of EU privacy rules which affect more than 500 million Facebook users.
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The Irish DPC is the lead supervisory authority in respect of Meta for the purposes of the GDPR.
Meta also instituted a judicial review challenge to the constitutional validity of the Data Protection Act 2018 with particular reference to the conferral of powers upon a non-judicial body to impose significant financial penalties.
Separately, one of Meta’s platforms, WhatsApp Ireland, has brought challenges in Ireland and the EU over the DPC’s interpretation of part of the GDPR regulations relating to the assessment of administrative fines.
The General Court of the EU ruled the EU proceedings were inadmissible and WhatsApp then brought an appeal to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and a decision on that appeal is due on March 27th.
Meta had asked the High Court to adjourn its proceedings against the DPC over the fines pending the outcome of that WhatsApp EU appeal.
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The DPC opposed the adjournment initially saying that the High Court is obliged under EU law to determine the domestic proceedings expeditiously.
It said Meta was required to meet a “high threshold” in terms of justifying the imposition of an adjournment. Meta must demonstrate a “real risk of serious or irreparable damage”, or, at least, a “very real risk of prejudice”, the DPC said.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons ruled last year that the proceedings should be adjourned pending the EU court decision in WhatsApp.
The DPC appealed that decision and Meta opposed the appeal.
On Thursday, on behalf of the three-judge CoA, Mr Justice Anthony M Collins allowed the DPC appeal and set aside the High Court order adjourning the proceedings.
He said the decision to adjourn the proceedings can be said to have a significant impact upon their progress such that the threshold for intervention by an appellate court has been reached.
Meta had not shown a substantial or material risk of conflict in the event that the CoA allowed the appeal, thus facilitating resumption of the proceedings, he said.
The delays consequent upon a further adjournment to await the outcome of the WhatsApp proceedings were “clearly inimical” to the economical and expeditious determination of these challenges to the validity of the DPC decision, he said. It deprived the parties of the effective remedy that GDPR regulations require, he said.
