EU top court rules privacy campaigner can go after Facebook

BRUSSELS – The European Union’s top court says that Austrian privacy campaigner Maximillian Schrems can bring a case against Facebook Ireland as an individual but there cannot be a class action suit.

Schrems had initiated a case against Facebook Ireland, claiming the subsidiary of the U.S. social media giant breached EU privacy rules.

Schrems said that the “good news” was that he could finally get Facebook into an EU court after trying for a decade to do so in Ireland and Austria. He says that Facebook is far too invasive in the lives of its users and that the company tracks users where it should not.

Schrems says he is disappointed, though, that “there is no possibility to bring a class action in Austria.”