Irish Supreme Court rejects Facebook bid to block ECJ data case

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will hear a landmark privacy case regarding the transfer of EU citizens’ data to the United States in July, after Facebook’s bid to stop its referral was blocked by Ireland’s Supreme Court on Friday. The case, which was initially brought against Facebook by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, is the latest to question whether methods used by technology firms to transfer data outside the 28-nation European Union give EU consumers sufficient protection from US surveillance.

A ruling by Europe’s top court against the current legal arrangements would have major implications for thousands of companies, which make millions of such transfers every day, including human resources databases, credit card transactions and storage of internet browsing histories. The Irish High Court, which heard Schrems’ case against Facebook last year, said there were well-founded concerns about an absence of an effective remedy in US law compatible with EU legal requirements, which prohibit personal data being transferred to a country with inadequate privacy protections.