Facebook Loses Court Bid Over Irish Watchdog’s Data Curbs

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. lost a court fight over the legality of a preliminary order by its main European Union privacy watchdog threatening its transfers of users’ data across the Atlantic.

A court in Dublin on Friday concluded that Facebook’s challenge “must fail” and “that it is, therefore, not entitled to any of the reliefs claimed in the proceedings.”

The dispute is part of the fallout from July’s shock decision at the EU’s Court of Justice, which toppled the so-called Privacy Shield, an EU-approved trans-Atlantic transfer tool, over fears citizens’ data isn’t safe once shipped to the U.S.

That ruling was quickly followed by a preliminary order from the Irish Data Protection Commission telling Facebook it could no longer use an alternative tool, known as standard contractual clauses, to satisfy privacy rules when shipping data to the U.S.

The Irish regulator is the main privacy authority for Facebook and many other U.S. tech giants that have their European bases in the EU nation, from Apple Inc. to Google. That means the final decision could also set the course for data transfers for many other companies under its purview.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.