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JUDGMENT OF THE GENERAL COURT (Tenth Chamber, Extended Composition)
( Protection of personal data – Article 65(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – Binding decision instructing a lead supervisory authority to broaden the scope of its investigation and issue a new draft decision – Competence of the European Data Protection Board )
In Joined Cases T‑70/23, T‑84/23 and T‑111/23,
Data Protection Commission, established in Dublin (Ireland), represented by D. Young, A. Bateman, R. Minch, M. Delargy, K. Donnelly, Solicitors, B. Kennelly, Senior Counsel, D. Fennelly, E. Synnott and R. Costello, Barristers-at-Law,
applicant,
v
European Data Protection Board, represented by I. Vereecken, C. Foglia and M. Gufflet, acting as Agents, and by G. Ryelandt, E. de Lophem and P. Vernet, lawyers,
defendant,
THE GENERAL COURT (Tenth Chamber, Extended Composition),
composed of O. Porchia, President, M. Jaeger, L. Madise (Rapporteur), P. Nihoul and S. Verschuur, Judges,
Registrar: M. Zwozdziak-Carbonne, Administrator,
having regard to the written part of the procedure,
further to the hearing on 16 April 2024,
gives the following
1 By its actions under Article 263 TFEU, the applicant, the Data Protection Commission, which is the Irish supervisory authority for personal data protection, seeks annulment in part of Binding Decisions 3/2022, 4/2022 and 5/2022 of 5 December 2022 of the European Data Protection Board (‘the EDPB’) on the disputes between the supervisory authorities concerned arising from the Data Protection Commission’s draft decisions regarding, respectively, the social network Facebook, the social network Instagram and the messaging service WhatsApp, in so far as those binding decisions require it to carry out new investigations into the processing of data carried out in connection with the use of those applications and to issue new draft decisions on the basis of the results thereof.
2 In 2018, three individuals living in Belgium, Germany and Austria, respectively, each lodged, through the non-profit association ‘NOYB – European Center for Digital Rights’, before the respective data protection supervisory authority of their place of residence, complaints against Facebook Ireland Ltd (which, in 2022, became Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd; ‘Meta’), regarding the processing of data in connection with the use of Facebook and Instagram, and against WhatsApp Ireland Ltd (‘WhatsApp’), regarding the processing of data in connection with the use of the messaging service WhatsApp.