CJEU’s Advocate General considers allowing GDPR complaints in any EU member state

According to RTE, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has issued an opinion that a privacy complaint against Facebook does not have to be taken to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) and can be handled by any national data protection authority in an EU member state. So far, privacy complaints against Facebook by EU citizens need to be referred to the Irish DPC, since Facebook’s European headquarters are in Ireland. In a case referred to the CJEU by a Belgian court, the CJEU’s Advocate General has held that, in certain circumstances, any national regulator or national court can handle a data privacy complaint. However, the Irish Times reported that the opinion is not binding yet, as the CJEU judges will start deliberations and give their judgement on the issue at a later date.