Schrems 2 Ruling: A Brief Commentary On Its Effects

1. Background

The Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU"), has today delivered the much-anticipated preliminary ruling in the Schrems II case. Essentially, the CJEU:

• Invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield; and
• Ruled against the use of Standard Contractual Clauses by Facebook and similar US companies.

While the facts of the case are long and complex, it's interesting to note that this case originated from a declined complaint by Max Schrems to the Irish DPC, which was rejected by the Irish DPC as baseless.  The complaint was against Facebook Ireland Ltd, in which Mr Schrems argued that his personal data was being transferred to the US company Facebook Inc., not only without his consent but also to a jurisdiction with broad surveillance laws which are in conflict with EU privacy laws.