Irish Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC), the lead data privacy watchdog for Facebook within the European Union, imposed the fine of such a big amount on Whatsapp after the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) had pressured it to increase the penalty, AFP reported.

"The initial fine was €50 millions," Reuters said in its report quoting Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems who has taken on Facebook in several privacy cases.

Ireland's DPC in a statement said that its investigation in the matter had commenced on Dec 10, 2018 and it examined whether WhatsApp had discharged its GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) transparency obligations with regard to the provision of information and the transparency of that information to both users and non-users of WhatsApp’s service.

"On July 28, 2021, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted a binding decision and notified to the DPC, and this decision contained a clear instruction that required the DPC to reassess and increase its proposed fine on the basis of a number of factors contained in the EDPB's decision and following this reassessment the DPC has imposed a fine of €225 million on WhatsApp," DPC said in the statement.

"In addition to the imposition of an administrative fine, the DPC has also imposed a reprimand along with an order for WhatsApp to bring its processing into compliance by taking a range of specified remedial actions," the statement read.

Calling the fine slapped by the Irish body 'entirely disproportionate', WhatsApp said it would appeal the decision.

"We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to the people in 2018," WhatsApp said in a statement.