Sojourn in legal limbo awaits DPC as WhatsApp fine is appealed

With the Facebook-owned messaging giant signalling its intention to appeal the €225m fine, months or even years in court are likely to await Helen Dixon and her office

Helen Dixon: the Data Protection Commissioner could spend years in court defending a €225 million fine against WhatsApp that she didn’t want to impose in the first place. Picture: Maura Hickey

The letter sent to WhatsApp last month that notified the Facebook subsidiary that it was being fined €225 million by the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), was the first big bang in the Irish watchdog’s oversight of EU privacy rules. But it may well end in a whimper.

WhatsApp has already announced that it will appeal the fine, which it deems “entirely disproportionate”. That means the DPC is now set to spend months, if not years, ...