European Court of Justice backs Facebook in Austrian privacy lawsuit

Facebook has won the backing of European Union courts after the European Court of Justice dismissed a potential class action lawsuit from Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems.  The EU’s highest court ruled that Schrems — a dogged campaigner against Facebook’s handling of users’ personal data — could not bring a consumer lawsuit on behalf of 25,000 Facebook users for alleged privacy breaches. Instead, the ECJ said Schrems could only file an individual case against Facebook for allegedly illegally handling data relating to his personal Facebook account in Austria. The ruling is a victory for Facebook which has been fighting multiple legal battles against Schrems in Europe. The Austrian lawyer helped bring down a vital US-EU data-sharing agreement known as Safe Harbour in 2015, after he successfully argued Facebook was not protecting users’ private information from US intelligence services.