Lawyer Max Schrems has been a thorn in Facebook’s side for several years now and an official ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) doesn’t quite mean the end of the fight between the two.
Back in November 2017, EU advocate general Michal Bobek spoke on behalf of the ECJ and, in his non-binding opinion, there was a basis for an individual case to be brought by Schrems against Facebook but no such grounds for a potential class-action suit.
Schrems did, however, secure the right to sue Facebook in his home country of Austria as opposed to Ireland, where the firm’s EMEA operations are based.
He described the ruling as a blow for Facebook and said the company would need to explain whether its business model “is in line with stringent European Privacy laws”.
Schrems’ legal battle with Facebook goes as far back as 2011 when he lodged 23 complaints before the Irish Data Protection Commissioner about alleged privacy violations carried out by the company.
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