LUXEMBOURG THE PLACE OF jurisdiction for Facebook in Europe is usually the company’s headquarters – and that is Ireland. In one case, however, authorities in Belgium are also allowed to take action against the social network, the ECJ ruled.
National data protection authorities can take action against violations by companies in exceptional cases, even if their headquarters are in another country. This emerges from a judgment published on Tuesday by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to the disadvantage of Facebook.
The background is a case from Belgium. The competent national court ruled that “the social network Facebook did not
Adequately inform Belgian internet users about the collection and use of the information in question”, according to a communication from the ECJ.
Facebook appealed, arguing, among other things, that the Belgian authorities were not competent. It is true that it is fundamentally the task of the lead authority to decide whether the conduct of a company violates the General Data Protection Regulation. However, you cannot make a decision on your own, but must work “loyally and effectively” with the other supervisory authorities concerned.
There are also exceptions, for example if a case is only related to a branch in the respective country or only people from the member state are affected. From the perspective of Facebook, the judgment confirms that these exemptions for national authorities are limited to “exceptional circumstances”, as the company announced.
“The Internet giants will find it more difficult in the future to evade effective control through a clever choice of location,” said Bavaria’s Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU). This strengthens the rights of consumers, who are entitled to transparent rules and secure procedures for protecting their personal data.
