EU’s Reding Says US Tech Giants Can’t Sidestep Rules

US-based technology firms Google, Facebook, Apple and other non-European companies that offer services in the European Union must abide by its overhauled data-protection rules, according to the bloc’s justice chief.

The same limits have to apply to all companies that do business in the 27-nation area, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a speech in Brussels. Consumers in Europe need to know that their data is processed in line with European rules “that reflect the fact that data protection is a fundamental right,” Reding said. Reding presented plans in January 2012 to entirely reform the data-protection rules that apply to the bloc’s 27 member nations. She has insisted from the start that the rules, once they received the backing by EU lawmakers and ministers and can be enforced, would also apply to U.S. companies such as Facebook and Google. The new protections would “refresh” an existing EU data-protection law which dates back to 1995, Reding said. “The reasoning is simple: if companies outside Europe want to take advantage of the European market with its potential 500 million customers then they have to play by the European rules,” Reding said in the speech.