Facebook case referred to the EU Court of Justice

On 8 May 2019, the Court of Appeal of Brussels ruled in the case of the Belgian Data Protection Authority v. Facebook following the pleadings of 27 and 28 March 2019.

The DPA argued that the Belgian courts have jurisdiction and demanded that Facebook comply with Belgian and European privacy rules. Before ruling on the merits, the Court of Appeal wants to ensure that the DPA can pursue the case against Facebook given the entry into application of the GDPR on 25 May 2018. For this reason, the Court of Appeal decided to refer some preliminary questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

More information can be found here.

An unofficial English translation of the preliminary questions can be found here.

In the Belgian television news VTM Nieuws of 8 May 2019, Timelex partner Frederic Debusseré, who is the Belgian DPA’s lawyer in this case, was briefly interviewed about the judgement (min. 22:20).