Paul Lefebvre Secures Victory for Facebook Ireland in Data Protection Battle

July 5, 2016 01:51 PM

Paul Lefebvre, acting as counsel to Facebook Ireland, obtained a substantial victory in the data protection battle raging between Facebook Inc., Facebook Ireland, and Facebook Belgium, on the one hand, and the Belgian Privacy Commission on the other.

On the 20th of June 2016, the Brussels Court of Appeal established in interim proceedings that it has no jurisdiction to rule on the processing of data of Belgian citizens conducted by Facebook Ireland or Facebook Inc. Furthermore, the claim for interim measures brought against Facebook Belgium by the Belgian Privacy Commission was thrown out for lack of urgency.

The Brussels Court of Appeal overruled the decision of the Judge of First Instance who had banned the social networking site in early November 2015 from processing data of non-Facebook users through the so-called data cookie on grounds of violation of the privacy of the Belgian non-users.

For Lefebvre, this volte face is a confirmation of other case law spanning the European continent whereby the contested parallel competence of the national supervisors for data protection is, since the Google Spain and Weltimmo cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union under scrutiny. It is a substantial victory for Facebook defending the one stop principle.

Hanotiau & van den Berg is a boutique firm with a particular focus on international arbitration. Paul Lefebvre handles a wide range of disputes ranging from litigation in all fields of business law (including intellectual property and product liability) to Supreme Court litigation in all fields of law. Paul Lefebvre also sits as an Arbitrator both in national and international arbitration cases.

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