The High Court has joined Maximillian Schrems as a notice party in Meta Platforms Ireland Limited’s judicial review and statutory appeal against a Data Protection Commission decision on transfers of EU/EEA users’ data to the United States.
In a judgment delivered on 13 February 2024, Mr Justice Michael Quinn found that Schrems was uniquely and directly affected by the proceedings because the regulator’s “Own Volition Inquiry” had its origins in his 2013 complaint and overlapped with a still-pending inquiry into transfers of his own personal data.
The decision under challenge was made on 12 May 2023. The Commission found that the transfers did not ensure protection essentially equivalent to that required by EU law, that Meta Ireland infringed Article 46(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation, and that it could not rely on Article 49(1) derogations. It ordered the transfers suspended, directed Meta Ireland to bring its processing into compliance, including by ceasing specified US storage, and imposed an administrative fine of €1.2 billion. Those are the Commission’s findings and orders; the High Court judgment addressed Schrems’s joinder application, not the merits of Meta’s challenges.
Meta seeks to have the decision quashed in judicial review proceedings and annulled through a statutory appeal. Its grounds include alleged errors in the Commission’s exercise of its regulatory role, interpretation of GDPR provisions, fair procedures and proportionality. The judgment records those as Meta’s claims, which remain to be determined.
Meta and the Commission opposed Schrems’s application, arguing that his interest was no more than the general or precedential interest shared by other Facebook users. They said joining him could expand the issues and lengthen the proceedings. The court applied the test of whether he was directly affected, including whether the proceedings could adversely affect his substantial interests.
Justice Quinn distinguished Schrems from other users. He had made the original complaint in 2013, participated in related court proceedings and had been permitted to make submissions in the Own Volition Inquiry as an interested party. The court also found that the inquiry and Schrems’s separate complaint-based inquiry were closely connected. If Meta’s challenges succeeded, the outcome could affect the progress of both inquiries, beyond merely setting a precedent, the judge said.
The judge was not persuaded that concerns about delay, duplication or costs justified refusing joinder. He ordered Schrems joined as a notice party in both cases, giving him a role in the proceedings rather than limiting him to that of an amicus curiae. The judgment did not decide whether the Commission’s 2023 decision was lawful, uphold or overturn its findings, or determine the outstanding complaint-based inquiry.