Facebook threatens hardship after a verdict in Europe.
The group will probably have to stop its data transfer from the EU to the USA.
That would be a big blow.
Munich - Facebook may have to rethink its business model.
The US company threatens to stop data transfer from the EU to the USA *.
That could be the result of a legal defeat in Ireland.
The country's Supreme Court dismissed the tech giant's request to block an Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) investigation into the data transfer.
Judge David Barniville said he was rejecting any claim from Facebook Ireland.
In September, the court initially approved a temporary blockade of the investigation.
Facebook receives legal defeat: data protection commission hopes for a decisive blow
The data protection commission welcomed the court decision.
The DPC could now prohibit the transmission of personal data from Facebook users from the EU to the USA - and thus have a decisive impact on Facebook's business model.
Facebook *, which recently made headlines with data leaks, has its European headquarters in Ireland.
It is therefore up to the Irish Data Protection Authority to prosecute any breach of EU regulations by the company.
The Irish authority responded to a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) from last July with the investigation, which Facebook is legally contested by.
Five years after the end of the EU data protection agreement “Safe Harbor” with the USA, the latter had also declared the successor agreement “Privacy Shield” to be invalid.
In principle, the transfer of data to the USA remained possible for companies on the basis of so-called standard contractual clauses because, in the opinion of the ECJ, sufficient protective mechanisms exist.
Facebook receives legal defeat: will data transmission be blocked in the summer?
However, the Irish Data Protection Agency believed that these clauses might not be legal either and opened an investigation on August 28th.
The Austrian Max Schrems, who has been fighting a legal dispute with Facebook for years, told the short message service Twitter * that the DPC could now block the transmission of Facebook data from the EU to the USA “within two months”.
Despite a request from the AFP news agency, there was initially no comment from Facebook spokesmen.
Video: New data protection regulations apply to Whatsapp
Facebook conceded legal defeat: Just recently legal trouble because of Whatsapp update
It was only on Tuesday that the Hamburg data protection authority Facebook banned the processing of user data from its messenger service Whatsapp * for its own purposes.
The Hamburg data protection authority announced that the ban would be issued for three months as part of an urgency procedure.
The background to this is a controversial update on Whatsapp, which users should agree to by May 15.
Recently, international criticism had risen that the update meant that Whatsapp user data fell into the hands of the tech giant Facebook.
The new terms of use are intended to enable companies to chat or make phone calls with customers on Whatsapp.
However, users' contacts and profile data should also be transmitted to Facebook.
(AFP) * Merkur.de and tz.de are offers from IPPEN.MEDIA
