Irish “Facebook” Ruling Has Widespread Implications for Cross-Border Data Transfers

The Supreme Court of Ireland has issued a major decision in a data privacy case involving Facebook that will now allow the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) to move forward in assessing whether the company’s data protection practices are lawful under European Union (EU) law. Among other things, the DPC will decide whether the company’s “standard contractual clauses” (SCC) and related practices are adequate.

As explained in more detail below, the DPC’s ruling is expected to provide important guidance as to how an EU data protection agency views the adequacy of data protections provided in a SCC involving EU-U.S. data transfers, including HR data.

Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.