A high-profile class action case against Facebook has been referred to The European Court of Justice. Max Schrems, an Austrian student, launched the suit against Facebook back in 2014, accusing the company of having an “invalid privacy policy” and illegally processing user data. The case was opened by Schrems on behalf of 25,000 other people, and has worked its way up the Austrian legal system before reaching the European court. He has also called for the court to be “consumer friendly”, and not force all 25,000 claims to be made separately in thousands of courts across the country. Facebook has responded to the dispute by saying that the claims “have twice been rejected on the grounds that they cannot proceed as 'class action' on behalf of other consumers”. Previously, following a complaint from Schrems, the European court ruled against a deal that allowed data transfer between the US and Europe, as European users were not adequately protected from US spies, following Edward Snowden's reveal of confidential NSA information.Â
