Case Law & Court Rules

On July 14, 2016, the Second Circuit held that U.S. law does not authorize a warrant against a U.S.-based service provider for the seizure of e-mails stored in Ireland. In December 2013, a New York district court issued a warrant ordering Microsoft to produce all emails and private information associated with a certain account hosted by […]

On June 29, 2016, the Belgian Court of Appeal overturned the Brussels Court of First Instance’s decision against Facebook. The Brussels Court of First Instance had found Facebook liable for violation of Belgian privacy law for using cookies to track users who did not consent to the processing of their personal data and non users. Facebook was fined […]

On June 13, 2016, Schrem’s website “Europe v Facebook”(website collecting information regarding class actions against Facebook) released a press update according to which the United States government asked the Irish High Court to join as amicus curiae in the case between Max Schrems and Facebook. “The US government likely wants to defend its surveillance laws before the European […]

On March 2, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)  brought its first data security enforcement action, acting as federal data security regulator to ensure that financial companies and service providers adequately secure consumers’ information. The CFPB, a federal agency – whose creation was authorized by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in […]

The Department of Justice has accessed the iphone of San Bernardino attacker Syed Rizwan Farook and therefore no longer needs Apple’s assistance to unblock the phone. In the San Bernardino attack, fourteen people were killed and 22 injured. The attackers died in a police shooting; their personal phones were destroyed, but Farook’s work phone survived. […]

Three defendants (John Ayers, Leaplab and Leads Company) settled with the Federal Trade Commission the charges that they knowingly provided marketers/scammers with consumers’ sensitive personal information. The FTC pressed charges alleging that the defendants, after collecting from consumers hundreds of thousands of loan applications through payday loan websites (the application included names, address, phone number, […]

On February 16, 2016, Article 29 Working Party (WP29) issued an update on Opinion 8/2010 on applicable law. The update provides explanations concerning the applicable law in light of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgement’s in Google Spain (or Costeja case, C-131/12). The ruling of May 13, 2015 held that EU data subjects have a right […]

On December 4, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard the oral argument made in the case brought by United States Telecom Association (USTA) against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). USTA challenges FCC’s authority to regulate net neutrality and classifying broadband Internet providers as utility providers (or common carriers) […]

The compendium, compiled under the auspices of the Court itself, collects the most relevant decisions concerning personal data protection. It mentions the case law listed below with regard to the following topics (updated as of December 5,  2015): GPS data GPS data Uzun v. Germany, 2 September 2010 Ben Faiza v. France (no. 31446/12); pending as […]

Update on: Federal Trade Commission v. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation et al, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, case no. 13-cv-1887 On December 9, 2015, Wyndham agreed to settle FTC charges that the company “failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for the personal information [it] collected” (here). According to the settlement agreement, […]