EU Court of Justice · 6 October 2015

Schrems I

In plain English

After the Snowden revelations, Max Schrems complained about Facebook sending his data to the United States. The Court held that national authorities can examine such complaints despite a Commission adequacy decision, and declared the Safe Harbor decision invalid.

  • Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner
  • Case C-362/14
  • ECLI:EU:C:2015:650

What the court ruled

Decision 2000/520 is invalid.

Judgment of 6 October 2015, Schrems I, C-362/14, EU:C:2015:650, operative part, point 2EUR-Lex

a decision adopted pursuant to that provision, such as Commission Decision 2000/520/EC … does not prevent a supervisory authority of a Member State … from examining the claim of a person concerning the protection of his rights and freedoms in regard to the processing of personal data relating to him which has been transferred from a Member State to that third country …

Judgment of 6 October 2015, Schrems I, C-362/14, EU:C:2015:650, operative part, point 1EUR-Lex

Related

The official text is quoted word for word from the English version of the source named under it; only the version published in the court’s own records is authoritative. The plain-English line is Fino’s own summary, not legal advice.