Facebook Can’t Dodge EU-Wide Privacy Orders, Top Court Rules

  • EU top court rules on scope of so-called one-stop-shop system
  • Dispute stems from Belgian data order over Facebook cookies

Photographer: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images

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Facebook Inc. and other U.S. tech giants can’t dodge potential privacy orders from European Union data protection authorities beyond their lead watchdog in Ireland, the bloc’s top court said in a ruling that tests the limits of beefed-up EU rules.

Under certain conditions, a national regulator may exercise its power “even though that authority is not the lead supervisory authority with regard to that processing,” the EU Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday.