Court of Justice of the European Union: : Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner

• Autores: Ronan Ó Fathaigh
• Localización: IRIS: Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory, ISSN-e 1023-8565, Nº. 10, 2015, págs. 1-2
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • On 6 October 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in Case C-362/14, Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner, which was a preliminary reference from an Irish court asking whether: (a) national data protection authorities are absolutely bound by a European Commission decision, where an individual claims their personal data is being transferred to a country where there are inadequate laws on data protection, and (b) should a national data protection authority conduct its own review in light of factual developments since a Commission decision was first taken.

    The case arose when an Austrian user of Facebook made a complaint to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, asking the authority to prohibit Facebook Ireland from transferring his personal data to the United States, as he claimed US law did not adequately protect his personal data. The Commissioner rejected the complaint, holding that under the Commission’s Decision 2000/520 (the “safe harbour scheme”), US law ensured an adequate level of protection. The Irish High Court reviewed the Commissioner’s decision, and asked the CJEU to rule on whether the Commissioner was absolutely bound by the Commission’s decision on US law, and whether the Commissioner should instead carry out its own review of US law