Policy Observatory
The US government has asked to be joined as a party in the Irish High Court case between the Austrian privacy activist and lawyer Max Schrems, and the social network Facebook. The American Chamber of Commerce, Business Software Alliance, and the Irish Business and Employers Confederation also asked to join the procedure, as these organisations’ members also use standard contractual clauses to transfer data to the United States.
The Irish High Court refers Facebook privacy case to the Court of Justice of the European Unionin order to determine the legal status of data transfers under Standard Contractual Clauses. Therefore, Facebook could face questions from the CJEU about the validity of the model clauses it uses to transfer data outside of the 28-member-state bloc.