Facebook inches closer to European blackout

Facebook and Instagram could have to stop sending European users’ data to the United States in the next two months over privacy concerns.

Europe’s group of privacy regulators, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), will issue a binding decision on a case scrutinizing Meta’s data transfers to the United States by April 14, a spokesperson told POLITICO Tuesday.

Meta has previously said it might have to shutter its services in Europe if regulators deemed its legal basis for data transfers illegal.

A new transatlantic data deal is being finalized and is expected to come before the summer. But that could be too late, as it would leave Meta without a proper legal basis to transfers data it holds on Europeans in between the regulators’ decision and the new deal coming into effect.

The case stems from a privacy complaint filed by Austrian campaigner Max Schrems in 2013. The Irish Data Protection Commission in July 2022 first proposed banning Meta from using a legal instrument known as "standard contractual clauses" to send users’ data to the U.S. That decision came after the EU’s top court had annulled an EU-U.S. data agreement called Privacy Shield, ruling that it did not sufficiently protect EU citizens’ data from being accessed by U.S. authorities.

The Irish data regulator in late January triggered a dispute resolution mechanism — known as Article 65 — after it failed to resolve objections raised by other European data protection authorities about its decision. The EDPB spokesperson said the official procedure for the secretariat to prepare a binding decision formally kicked off today and will face a two-month deadline.

This article has been updated.