LGBT dating app Grindr faces an £8.5m fine for illegally selling user data to advertisers.
Norway’s Data Protection Authority plans to fine the platform 100m Norwegian Crowns, or around 10% of Grindr’s estimated global revenue.
The popular social networking app for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people has until 15 February to respond to the case.
It has yet to reply to the BBC’s request for a comment.
In a statement to the New York Times, a spokesperson for Grindr said it had obtained “valid legal consent from all” of its users in Europe on multiple occasions and was confident its “approach to user privacy is first in class” among social apps.
“We continually enhance our privacy practices in consideration of evolving privacy laws and regulations, and look forward to entering into a productive dialogue with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority,” it added.
“Our preliminary conclusion is that the breaches are very severe,” the Norwegian agency said in a statement.
The data breach was revealed last January, after the Norwegian Consumer Council made three complaints against Grindr for sharing personal information with advertisers.
