- The European Union regulators penalized Facebook Inc's (NASDAQ:FB) WhatsApp €225 million ($266 million) for failing to disclose how it shared its data with its parent company, the Wall Street Journal reports.
- Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is a record fine, representing 0.8% of Facebook's 2020 profit.
- The Irish data regulator applied a penalty of over four times than initially proposed after coming under pressure from other European countries, the Financial Times reports.
- In its ruling after a two-year investigation, Ireland also ordered WhatsApp Ireland to bring its data sharing with Facebook in line with GDPR.
- WhatsApp previously faced flak for forcing users to share their data, including their phone number, with Facebook.
- WhatsApp has refuted the allegations and will appeal the decision. The ruling follows Luxembourg's record €746 million penalties on Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) in July for breaching the GDPR.
- In December, Ireland had fined Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) €450 million for not informing regulators about a data leak within 72 hours.
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