Dr Johnny Ryan

In an affidavit filed with the High Court, plaintiff Dr Johnny Ryan, a senior fellow with ICCL, alleges that the DPC has breached its obligations under the law “by failing to progress and/or substantially complete the investigation” into a complaint he submitted in 2018.

The complaint concerns Google’s real-time bidding (RTB) system, which determines what ads users see when a website or app loads. ICCL alleges that the system is unlawful because it broadcasts personal data to private companies in breach of the GDPR.

Liam Herrick, executive director of ICCL, said: “We are concerned that the rights of individuals across the EU are in jeopardy, because the DPC has failed to investigate Google’s RTB system over three and a half years since first notified by Johnny Ryan in 2018.

“The issue at stake here affects the rights of every European and we are going to court to see that digital rights are protected. Repeated attempts to get the DPC to take up this rights violation have failed.”

Dr Ryan added: “The DPC was created to protect us against the illegal collection and use of intimate data about us. But it has failed to act in this landmark case, despite the passage of three and a half years and having detailed evidence of Google’s massive and ongoing data breach.”