Facebook is not only responsible in the European Union to Ireland, where the FB European headquarters is located, finds the main adviser to the European Court of Justice. He believes that other EU countries’ privacy watchdogs can also address Facebook.
The Luxembourg court must decide on a Belgian case against Facebook. The Belgian company of the authority’s Personal Data wants the social network to stop sniffing the surfing behaviour of non-users. But European rules require Belgium to leave such issues to the Irish authorities, continued Facebook.
The Advocate General of the European Court does not agree with Facebook. In some cases, judges from other member states may also deal with Facebook’s trade and walks away, even though Ireland is in principle at the forefront. This can only be done when it comes to ‘cross-border’ matters and Ireland, for example, does not do so itself.
The opinion of the advocate general is usually of great importance, although the court does not always follow it.