“I’m convinced that some U.S. Internet giants that do not comply with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are still offering services in Europe,” Kelber told Handlesblatt. Therefore, “urgent decisions, especially from my Irish colleagues, are available on these complaints, in triple numbers there”.

“Especially big international players should be forced to comply with European law,” Kelber warned. The Irish Data Protection Authority is responsible for large tech companies such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, meta affiliates across Europe, because these companies have their own EU offices. At the request of “Handelsblatt”, the Authority explained that EU supervisory authorities had submitted a total of 1,300 complaints since May 2018. Of these, 700 have been completed so far. Kelber said Ireland was obliged to submit draft decisions to the European Data Protection Board after three and a half years, when nothing significant had happened. “We need decisions on the fundamental questions of data protection, not side issues,” he said. For example, he named the messenger service WhatsApp, which belongs to Meta. “For example, the question of whether the Messenger service has the right to protect its users’ contacts and share them with the meta group should be clarified,” Kelber said.