An EU court on Wednesday, September 9, upheld the pact governing the transfer of personal data between the 27-nation bloc and the United States, dismissing a challenge by a French lawmaker. In effect since 2023, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework was the bloc's third attempt at a legal framework to protect Europeans' personal data in exchanges with the United States – after the first two were shot down in court.
The centrist French lawmaker Philippe Latombe brought his case against the existing pact before the Luxembourg-based General Court, the lower chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union, two years ago. He sought its annulment on the grounds it did not fully respect the bloc's own data protection rules, and argued the practice of US intelligence agencies collecting personal data in bulk while in transit from the EU was illegal. And he objected to the fact the pact did not allow him to prevent his personal data being collected in France by the likes of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon or Microsoft.
Finding against him on all counts, the General Court said it "dismisses the action in its entirety."
"On the date of adoption of the contested decision, the United States of America ensured an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the European Union to organisations in that country," it found in its ruling.
