Facebook loses in court against Irish data protection authority

Facebook has suffered a legal defeat in Ireland that may soon halt data transfers from the European Union to the United States. Ireland’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected the tech giant’s request to block the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) investigation into transferring data. Data protection activist Max Schrems tweeted that DPC can now block the transfer of Facebook data from the European Union to the US “within two months”.

Judge David Barneville said he rejects any claim from Facebook Ireland. In September, the court initially agreed to a temporary ban on the investigation. The Data Protection Committee welcomed the court’s decision. DPC can now block the transfer of personal data from Facebook users from the European Union to the United States – and thus have a critical impact on Facebook’s business model.

Austrian Max Schrimms, who has been involved in a legal dispute with Facebook for years, announced this in a press release from his data protection organization “noyb / None of Your Business”: “We now expect DPC to make a decision to stop data transfers before the summer. Facebook. This means that Facebook will have to store most of the data from Europe domestically to ensure that Facebook USA does not have access to European data. Another possibility would be for the United States to change its surveillance laws, which are also being discussed. “