I saw this recently on IAJGS – (Ireland) Facebook Loses Court Fight With Irish Data Regulator Over Transferring Data to US (IAJGS Public Records Access Alert): https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-faces-irish-ruling-on-suspension-of-eu-u-s-data-flows-11620983614. Much longer article. but here are some of the relevant portions.
Facebook, Inc. lost its court fight over an initial order from the European Union privacy watchdog in Ireland threatening its transfers of users’ data across the Atlantic. On May 14, an Irish Court rejected Facebook’s challenge saying it did not establish “any basis” for calling into question the Irish Data Protection Commission’s decision. It rejected Facebook’s claims that the privacy regulator had given it too little time to respond or issued a judgment prematurely. The Data Protection Commissioner can proceed with an inquiry that could lead to a ban on Facebook’s data transfers from the European Union to the United States, the High Court ruled. This is a result of the July 2020 Court of Justice of European Union’s decision which invalidated the then data-transfer agreement between the EU and the United States called “Privacy Shield” over fears citizens’ data isn’t safe once shipped to the U.S.
That EU court ruling was quickly followed by a preliminary order from the Irish authority 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.
Facebook then fought the Irish measures, urging watchdogs to “adopt a pragmatic and proportionate approach until a sustainable long-term solution can be reached.” If made permanent, the order would mean the company could no longer use so-called standard contractual clauses for data transfers, the most commonly used remaining method.
To read more about this see:
Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
