The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has urged a Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja to dismiss a suit filed by Meta Platforms Incorporated against the sanctions imposed on it.
The NDPC had, on February 18, imposed both a remedial fee of $32,800,000million dollars and eight corrective orders against Meta Inc.
The American multinational technology company was found to have violated the fundamental privacy rights of its Nigerian users with respect to behavioural advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.
Dissatisfied with the penalties, , Meta filed the suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/355/2025 for judicial-review and an order of certiorari quashing the compliance and enforcement orders and all other investigations, proceedings and actions taken by NDPC against the applicant leading to the ‘Final Orders issued against the company on February 18.
The NDPC, in a preliminary argued that the suit is incompetent, queried court’s jurisdiction to hear it and urged the court to either dismiss or strike it out.
In a supporting affidavit, NDPC noted that Meta filed its originating summons on 19th March 19, 15 days after it obtained the court’s permission to institute the suit for judicial review.
NDPC argued that the reliefs contained in the originating summons are completely different from the reliefs contained in the statement filed to support the ex-parte application for judicial review.
It said it believes that this error on the part of Meta was fundamental and “the defendant/applicant (NDPC) does not intend to waive its right to object, in this regard.”
READ ALSO; UPDATED: Why I resigned from PDP, by Atiku
“The defendant/applicant does not intend to waive its rights in challenging these fundamental errors, which are fatal to this proceeding and jurisdiction of the court,” NDPC said.
NDPC stated, in a supporting affidavit, that in its decision, Meta was sanctioned after a protracted and thorough process of investigation.
It added that the investigative power of the commission was activated by a petition written by an organisation, the Personal Data Protection Awareness Initiative (PDPAI).
According to the commission, the PDPAI alleged that the company breached the data protection rights of users of Facebook and Instagram.
It added that in the said petition, the plaintiff was alleged to be engaging in behavioural advertising without obtaining explicit consent of data subjects (users).
The commission said compelling evidence were provided in support of the petition, revealing Meta’s private policy showing that it conducted behavioural advertising, without obtaining consent from the data subjects.
NDPC described behavioural advertisement as “a special form of targeted advertising, where consumers are shown advertisements based on their behavioural data.”
It added said behavioural advertisement is a kind of advertising which collects and tracks individual sensitive information, without their knowledge or consent, to either share with third parties, or to decide specialised advertisements to be shown to the consumers.
NDPC said during investigation, it drew the company’s attention to some very disturbing violations in this regard, especially as to non-consensual data processing activities.
It said the alleged violations included the disclosure of sensitive personal data of minors relating to their sex lives; sensitive personal data of minors involving drug use; and sensitive personal data of minor pupils in school, involving erotic dancing.
NDPC stated that Meta was found in breach of certain provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection (NDP) Act, and that its promotion of debasing images outside the expectation of concerned data subjects offended the principles of fairness, lawfulness, transparency, accountability and duty of care.
It added that Meta’s alleged failure to file a compliance audit with the commission for the year 2022, was a breach of the NDP Act.
The commission stated that cross border transfer of data by Meta, contravened the mandatory requirements under the NDP Act.
Meanwhile, Justice James Omotosho has adjourned till October 3 for ruling.