EU: EDPB adopts binding decisions regarding Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp
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Brussels - Dataguidance - The European Data Protection Board ('EDPB') announced, on 6 December 2022, that it had adopted three dispute resolution decisions on the basis of Article 65 of the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) ('GDPR') concerning Meta Platforms Ireland Limited. In particular, the EDPB explained that the decisions address important legal issues arising from the draft decisions of the Data Protection Commission ('DPC') as lead supervisory authority regarding the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms.
Further to the above, the EDPB provided that, following several European data protection authorities' objections to the draft decisions of the DPC, and given the inability to reach consensus, the EDPB settled the disputes, resolving, among others, the question of whether or not the processing of personal data for the performance of a contract is a suitable legal basis for behavioural advertising, in the cases of Facebook and Instagram, and for service improvement, in the case of WhatsApp.
Lastly, the EDPB specified that the DPC shall adopt its three final decisions, addressed to the controller, on the basis of the EDPB binding decisions, which must be at the latest one month after the EDPB notified the decisions.
EDPB adopts Art. 65 dispute resolution binding decisions regarding Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp
The EDPB adopted three dispute resolution decisions on the basis of Art. 65 GDPR concerning Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (Meta IE). The binding decisions address important legal issues arising from the draft decisions of the Irish SA as lead supervisory authority (LSA) regarding Meta IE platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The EDPB binding decisions play a key role in ensuring the correct and consistent application of the GDPR by the national Supervisory Authorities.
The Irish SA issued the draft decisions following complaint-based inquiries into the processing activities of the three platforms. The Facebook and Instagram draft decisions concern, in particular, the lawfulness and transparency of processing for behavioural advertising. The WhatsApp draft decision concerns notably the lawfulness of processing for the purpose of the improvement of services. Several SAs issued objections on the draft decisions prepared by the Irish SA concerning, among others, the legal basis for processing (Art. 6 GDPR), data protection principles (Art. 5 GDPR), and the use of corrective measures including fines.
As no consensus was reached on these objections, the EDPB was called upon to settle the dispute between the SAs within two months.
In its binding decisions, the EDPB settles, among others, the question of whether or not the processing of personal data for the performance of a contract is a suitable legal basis for behavioural advertising, in the cases of Facebook and Instagram, and for service improvement, in the case of WhatsApp.
The LSA shall adopt its three final decisions, addressed to the controller, on the basis of the EDPB binding decisions, taking into account the EDPB's legal assessment, at the latest one month after the EDPB has notified its decisions. The EDPB will publish its decisions on its website after the LSA has notified its national decisions to the controller. / source : edpb.europa.eu/new...cebook-instagram_en
