Europe’s top court on Tuesday endorsed the power of national data watch dogs to go after big tech firms regardless of whether they are not their lead regulators, in a setback for Silicon Valley companies like Facebook
The EU Court of Justice (CJEU) ruling could urge national agencies to act against U.S. tech organizations like Google, Twitter and Apple which all have their European Union headquarters in Ireland.
Numerous national watch dogs in the 27-member European Union have long complained about their Irish partner, saying that it takes too long to even consider adjudicating on cases.
Ireland has excused this, saying it must be extra careful in managing incredible and highly financed tech giants.
The CJEU got involved after a Belgian court looked for direction on Facebook’s test against the regional skill of the Belgian data watch dog’s bid to prevent it from following customers in Belgium through cookies put away in the company’s social plug-ins, whether they have an account or not.
“Under specific conditions, a national supervisory authority may practice its ability to bring any supposed encroachment of the GDPR under the watchful eye of a court of a member state, despite the fact that that authority isn’t the lead supervisory authority with respect to that processing,” the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) said.
Under milestone EU privacy rules known as GDPR, Facebook faces oversight by the Irish privacy authority since it has its European headquarters in Ireland.
The case is C-645/19 Facebook Ireland and Others.
