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Facebook denies it will pull service in Europe over data transfer ban

Facebooks head of global policy has denied the tech giant could close its service to Europeans if local regulators order it to suspend data transfers to the US following a landmark Court of Justice ruling in July that has cemented the schism between US surveillance laws and EU privacy rights.

Press reports emerged this week of a Dublin court filing by Facebook, which is seeking a stay to a preliminary suspension order on its EU-US data transfers, that suggested the tech giant could pull out of the region if regulators enforce a ban against its use of a data transfer mechanism known as Standard Contractual Clauses.

The court filing is attached to Facebooks application for a judicial review of a preliminary suspension order from Irelands Data Protection Commissionearlier this month, as Facebooks lead EU data supervisor responded to the implications of the CJEU ruling.

However he also warned of profound effects on scores of digital businesses if a way is not found by lawmakers on both sides of the pond to resolve the legal uncertainty around US data transfers making a pitch to politicians to come up with a new legal sticking plaster for EU-US data transfers now that a flagship arrangement, called Privacy Shield, is dead.

If those legal means of data transfer are removed not by us, but by regulators then of course that will have a profound effect on how, not just our services, but countless other companies operate.

Discussing the Dublin legal filing, Clegg suggested that an overenthusiastic reporter slightly overwrote in their interpretation of the document.

Weve taken legal action in the Dublin courts to in a sense to try to send a signal that this is a really big issue for the whole European economy, for all small and large companies that rely on data transfers, he said.

What is at stake here is quite a big issue that in the end can only be resolved politically between a continued negotiation between the US and the EU that clearly is not going to happen until theres a new US administration in place after the transition period in the early part of next year, he said, indicating Facebook is using Irelands courts to try to buy time for a political fix.

In terms of the economic recovery, our most important role is to continue to provide that extraordinary capacity for small businesses to do something which in the past only big businesses could do, he said.

Facebooks Clegg said the company will pay the taxes that are due under the rules that operate, adding that if there is a European digital tax it will of course abide by it.

Original article
Author: Natasha Lomas

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