Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On May 27, 2019, the Irish government announced that Helen Dixon, who currently serves as Irish Data Protection Commissioner, was appointed to a second five-year term in her position. Her reappointment was approved by a May 27 Cabinet vote.

While Dixon and her staff have yet to bring a fine under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which went into effect on May 25, 2018, privacy-related investigations by her and her staff into large technology companies are underway and are expected to conclude by the end of summer.

Violations of the GDPR may result in fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of a company’s annual revenue. Dixon stated in an interview that she is willing to impose, on a case-by-case basis, fines higher than the current record GDPR fine of 50 million euro imposed by the French Data Protection Authority against Google LLC.