Meta Platforms Ireland Limited
The GBA Litigation Chamber issued an enforcement decision against Meta Platforms Ireland for GDPR violations in Belgium relating to Meta's use of 'contractual necessity' as a legal basis for behavioural advertising, finding this basis incompatible with GDPR for processing personal data for ad targeting beyond what is strictly necessary to provide the contracted social media service. The Belgian action was part of a coordinated EU-wide enforcement process that ultimately resulted in the Irish DPC issuing fines of €210M (Instagram) and €180M (Facebook) in January 2023 following an EDPB binding decision. Belgium acted as a concerned supervisory authority triggering the dispute resolution mechanism.
GBA-BE
GDPR as enforced by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (GBA/APD)
- Member state DPAs can act independently on complaints from their residents and can trigger binding EDPB decisions that override lead authority positions — the GDPR one-stop-shop does not prevent national enforcement on systemic violations affecting local residents.