EU court rules against FB in vexed data transfer deal

The EU’s top court has ruled that a key trans-atlantic data deal relied on by companies such as Facebook was invalid in the light of spying revelations in the Edward Snowden scandal. “The Court of Justice declares that the (European) Commission’s US Safe Harbour Decision is invalid,” it said in a decision on a case brought against Facebook by Austrian law student Max Schrems.

The court said Irish authorities now had to decide whether transfer of data from Facebook’s European subscribers to the United States should be suspended “on the ground that that country does not afford an adequate level of protection of personal data.” The complaint focuses on the ‘Safe Harbour’ deal signed in 2000 between Brussels and Washington that allows data transfers by thousands of businesses on the grounds that US laws offer similar protection to those in the 28-nation EU.