Former data protection commissioner Helen Dixon has stood down from her role with the Republic’s telecommunications regulator just one year after joining the agency.
In a post on LinkedIn, Ms Dixon announced on Tuesday that she was “departing” from ComReg and wanted to “try something new”.
ComReg confirmed the departure in a statement.
It said Ms Dixon will step down from the body on February 28th. “On behalf of ComReg, chairperson Garrett Blaney thanked Helen for the experience, knowledge and insights that she brought to ComReg during her tenure,” said the regulator.
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Ms Dixon joined the communications regulator as a commissioner in February 2024. The move was signalled by then minister for communications Eamon Ryan in late 2023 when Ms Dixon announced her departure from the Data Protection Commission (DPC), which she led for two five-year terms.
On Tuesday, Ms Dixon did not indicate what she plans to do next.
“After over 18 years in regulatory leadership roles and in particular in global digital regulation, I’ve decided that the time is right to come at the questions and hopefully better answers from some different angles,” she said.
Thanking her colleagues in ComReg, Ms Dixon added: “I don’t know at this point what form(s) my next act will take. I’m going to take a little time to reflect on that.”
As the head of the DPC, Ms Dixon and her office faced stiff criticism and legal challenges from data privacy campaigners over its speed of decision-making and enforcement of GDPR rules against big tech companies.
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In a landmark ruling in January, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) dismissed a legal challenge launched by the DPC under Ms Dixon’s leadership to a decision made by Europe’s top data regulator.
The judgment, published on January 29th, had its origins in a series of complaints to Ms Dixon’s DPC against Meta in 2018 by individuals living in Belgium, Germany and Austria relating to the tech giant’s processing of their data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Still, the DPC levied large fines against the world’s biggest tech companies under Ms Dixon’s stewardship, including the decision in May 2023 to penalise Meta and impose a €1.2 billion fine concerning the transfer of European user data to the United States.
To date, the DPC is responsible for eight of the top 10 fines issued under the European GDPR since it was introduced in 2018, most of which were meted out during Ms Dixon’s tenure.
