Facebook has won its latest case in a long-running legal battle with an Austrian law student who attempted to sue the social network on privacy grounds.
A court in Vienna said it had no jurisdiction to rule on the class action suit from Max Schrems, who argued Facebook had breached EU rules on data protection.
The ruling is a small victory for the social network, which is facing a glut of legal challenges across Europe over the way it handles its users’ personal data.
Facebook said of the Vienna case: “This litigation was unnecessary and we’re pleased that the court has roundly rejected these claims.”
Mr Schrems, who was acting on behalf of 25,000 other claimants, said he would appeal against the decision.
“We have expected a number of possible outcomes, but this finding by the court is really very strange,” said Wolfram Proksch, the lawyer for Mr Schrems. “Unfortunately it seems like the court wanted to forward this hot potato to the higher courts.”
Data protection has become a legal headache for Facebook in Europe as regulators across the region become increasingly sharp-elbowed.
Facebook’s European headquarters is in Dublin, so the company is regulated by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, which has repeatedly given the company a clean bill of health.
But this arrangement has been challenged by other data protection authorities across the EU, who say that because Facebook processes their citizens’ data, they too should have a say in its regulation.
The EU has also entered the final stage of negotiations over new data protection laws, which will alter the rules in its jurisdiction.
These proposals suggest that while there will be one “lead” regulator, other data protection authorities will be able to intervene, with disputes settled by a new supranational regulator.
Mr Schrems has been a persistent critic and legal opponent of Facebook. The 27-year-old student started his campaign against the company after attending a lecture from the social network’s top lawyer on data protection at his university in California in 2011, which made him question the company’s application of EU data protection law. The Austrian subsequently demanded Facebook hand over all the data it had compiled on him, which ran to more than 1,000 pages.
Mr Schrems brought a separate case against the Irish Data Protection Commissioner in 2013. He argued EU rules governing the transfer of personal data across the Atlantic — known as “safe harbour” — were inadequate. This follow revelations by Edward Snowden, the former contractor of the US National Security Agency, of widespread snooping by the agency. The Austrian has taken this case to the EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, which is expected to issue an opinion on this in the coming months, with a final judgment expected later this year.
Credited:ft.com
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