New York (CNN Business) Facebook could be facing a multi-billion dollar fine after a European regulator announced Friday that it is launching an investigation into the company over failure to protect user privacy.

The Irish Data Protection Commission, which oversees Facebook's compliance with European law confirmed to CNN on Friday it launched a "statutory inquiry" into Facebook after receiving multiple reports of data breaches affecting the company.

News of the inquiry came just as Facebook announced that it had exposed photos from up to 6.8 million users. The incident comes after the company announced in September the biggest security breach in its history, in which hackers accessed the personal information of tens of millions of Facebook users.

The inquiry is the result of new powers given to the Irish data regulator as a result of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a European regulation that came into effect in May.

Because Facebook's European headquarters is in Dublin, it must under GDPR inform the Irish data regulator within 72 hours of discovering a breach.

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