Facebook has suffered a legal setback in Ireland, which could soon block the transfer of data from the European Union to the US. The Irish Supreme Court on Friday rejected a tech giant ‘s demand to block an Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) investigation into data transfers. Data protection activist Max Shrems tweeted that DPC could prevent Facebook from transferring data from the European Union to the USA “within two months”.

Judge David Barniville said Facebook was rejecting the claim from Ireland. The court initially approved a temporary injunction in September. The Data Protection Commission welcomed the court decision. DPC can now ban the transfer of personal data from Facebook users from the European Union to the USA – so this has a critical impact on Facebook’s business model.

Max Shrems, an Austrian who has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Facebook for years, said in a press release from his data protection organization “Noib / Your Business has nothing”: “We now expect the DPC to make a decision. Data will also have to be stored locally, with the U.S. likely to change its monitoring rules, which are currently being discussed. “