Irish High Court Judge OKs US, BSA, EPIC as Amici in Facebook Model Clause Case

An Irish High Court judge Tuesday accepted the U.S. government, two technology associations and a U.S.-based privacy group as amici curiae in a case involving Facebook's use of standard contractual clauses to transfer Europeans' personal data across the Atlantic (see 1607060009). But Justice Brian McGovern refused applications by several other civil liberties, human rights and privacy associations, an Irish business group and a data protection expert to advise the court. In his judgment, McGovern said the U.S. has a "significant and bona fide interest in the outcome of the proceedings. ... The imposition of restrictions on the transfer of such data would have potentially considerable adverse effects on EU-US commerce and could affect US companies significantly." Applications from industry associations BSA|The Software Alliance and Digital Europe also were accepted as was one from the Electronic Privacy Information Center. McGovern said EPIC would "offer a counterbalancing perspective" to the U.S. government's stance. McGovern acknowledged that Max Schrems, the Austrian privacy activist who brought the complaint against Facebook, is an EPIC board member, but the judge said there are 93 other board members and Schrems won't provide any advice or help preparing submissions or have contact with the group. McGovern denied applications from the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Irish Council of Civil Liberties and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, saying they wouldn't provide any particular assistance or new perspective. He also denied assistance from Ireland-based industry group IBEC and Kevin Cahill, who was described as an IT expert in the decision but who has been also identified as a U.K.-based journalist and data privacy campaigner in other media reports. The case, which was brought by Ireland's data protection commissioner, is expected to be transferred to the European Court of Justice soon.