Irish High Court Refers Facebook Standard Contractual Clause Case to European High Court
The Irish High Court referred a case against Facebook's use of standard contractual clauses (SCCs) to the European Court of Justice, as expected (see 1702060029). The Irish court said in a Tuesday executive summary of the judgment that the Irish…
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data protection commissioner (DPC) "raised well-founded concerns." Many companies use SCCs to transfer data abroad. Austrian privacy attorney Max Schrems, who challenged adequacy of the safe harbor agreement that led to EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, initially brought a similar complaint against SCCs to the Irish DPC in 2013. In the summary (provided by Schrems), the Irish High Court said the Privacy Shield's U.S. State Department ombudsperson didn't eliminate DPC concerns that SCCs provided inadequate protection. The ECJ must decide, said the Irish court, whether DPC authority to suspend or ban a data transfer to a company in a third country "is sufficient to secure the validity of the SCC Decisions." The judgment said only the ECJ can provide such "uniformity in the application" and "resolve the potential for inconsistent applications." A Facebook spokeswoman said the "ruling will have no immediate impact on the people or businesses who use our services. However it is essential that the [ECJ] now considers the extensive evidence demonstrating the robust protections in place under Standard Contractual Clauses and US law, before it makes any decision that may endanger the transfer of data across the Atlantic and around the globe.” SCCs are essential for thousands of companies, she said. Schrems welcomed the ruling: "Facebook seems to have lost in every argument.” BSA|The Software Alliance and the Electronic Privacy Information Center also commented.