Facebook Inc. lost a bid to block a European Union privacy decision that could suspend its ability to send data about European users to computer ser

Facebook's bid to overturn a court ruling on data flows between the EU and the US was unsuccessful.

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2021-05-14 15:26:29

Facebook Inc. lost a bid to block a European Union privacy decision that could suspend its ability to send data about European users to computer servers in the U.S., opening a pathway toward a precedent-setting interruption of its data flows.

Ireland’s High Court dismissed Friday all of Facebook’s procedural complaints about a preliminary decision on data flows that it received in August from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission. It rejected Facebook’s claims that the regulator had given it too little time to respond or issued a judgment prematurely.

The preliminary decision, which the court stayed in September pending its decision, could, if finalized, force the social-media company to suspend sending personal information about EU users to Facebook’s servers in the U.S.

To comply, Facebook would likely have to re-engineer its service to silo off most data it collects from European users, or stop serving them entirely, at least temporarily. In a securities filing this year, Facebook said that applying the regulator’s decision would “materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.”