EU’s Privacy Law U-Turn Seen Thwarting Google to Facebook

The European Union is backtracking from plans to allow US Internet companies to be regulated by a single data privacy watchdog in the EU, threatening the so-called one-stop-shop backed by Google to Facebook.

Amid a turf war over who gets to regulate some of the world’s biggest companies, justice ministers have dropped proposals to give sole power to regulators where companies have their EU headquarters. Under a compromise plan being discussed by justice ministers, powers would be spread out, giving other nations the right to veto decisions taken by the lead authority. “The proposal effectively allows each authority to exercise a veto over the decision of the lead authority,” said Wes Himes, a director at the European Digital Media Association, whose members include Google, Facebook and Microsoft. “All we want is one decision, one outcome.”