London (CNN Business) Facebook has suspended the rollout of its dating service in Europe planned for the eve of Valentine's Day after officials from the Irish data regulator searched its offices.

The regulator said in a statement that it "conducted an inspection" of Facebook's offices in Dublin earlier this week after learning on February 3 about the US company's plans to introduce the feature in the European Union.

"We were very concerned that this was the first that we'd heard from Facebook Ireland about this new feature, considering that it was their intention to roll it out tomorrow, 13 February," the Irish Data Protection Commission said in its statement.

The Irish regulator, which supervises Facebook because the company's European headquarters is in Dublin, added that the company had not provided it with a data protection assessment of the dating service on February 3.

"In order to expedite the procurement of the relevant documentation, authorized officers of the DPC conducted an inspection at Facebook Ireland ... and gathered documentation," it said in the statement.

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