Facebook privacy class action heads to Europe's top court -- sort of

A class-action-style lawsuit accusing Facebook of targeting advertising based on allegedly illegally processed personal data is heading for the European Union's highest court.

However, the Court of Justice of the EU is not being asked to rule on the substance of the case.

Instead, the Austrian Supreme Court has asked the CJEU to clarify whether someone who has become famous for their litigation of privacy rights can sue a company as an ordinary consumer under Austrian law.

The someone in question is Max Schrems, the man whose insistence that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner pay attention to his complaint against Facebook ultimately led to the biggest change in European privacy regulation in recent history. Unhappy with the DPC's initial dismissal of his complaint, Schrems took his appeal all the way to the High Court of Ireland, which referred questions of law to the CJEU. In its response, the CJEU unexpectedly invalidated the Safe Harbor Framework governing transatlantic transfers of personal information, forcing its replacement by Privacy Shield.

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