Berlin, October 4th, 2024 – The European Court of Justice (ECJ) today announced its ruling in a case concerning the processing of personal data by Facebook parent company Meta. In its judgement, the ECJ states that personal data may not be processed without a time limit and without taking into account the nature of the data. Not even if the data subject has given their consent. With this judgement, the power of action is significantly restricted by the development in social media and goes in favour of the consumer. This is a healthy shift, as consumers do not have sufficient tools at their disposal to protect themselves against social pressure.


Some time ago, a renowned computer expert said: ‘We must not and should not give in so quickly to the development of social media. It takes practice and learning to be able to resist. This applies to life in general and can therefore be generalised.

The ECJ judgement makes it clear why and also why the expert should be right.

It sometimes requires a development in the background that plays to one’s own wishes and will. Society, the individual as such, lives in interdependence with one another. Until every thing has found its place, every person, every organisation, every part of society has found its responsibility and reached maturity, it takes time and perseverance. Perseverance, to protect one’s own being, one’s own family members, members of the organisation, something that is still often neglected in our present time and society.

Orientation for such personal and individual behaviour is always provided by the attitude towards one’s own health!
If I have the feeling that I cannot entrust the handling of my data to third parties, then I can give my trust this weight and act accordingly. If I have the feeling and cannot trust, then the subjective feeling of security is enough to favour this over the need for recognition, which is what social media serves in most cases. The subjective feeling must be refutable or confirmed by facts. Only then do those affected achieve a well-founded state of certainty.

„Today’s judgement by the European Court of Justice has far-reaching implications for the digital economy, particularly for companies that use personal data for targeted advertising. It increases uncertainty for companies when processing data for advertising purposes, as it remains unclear how exactly the limitation for the intended data processing is to be defined and what this means for the processing of certain types of data, such as the websites visited or the selection of preferences. It also remains unclear what this means for the transfer of data to third parties with the consent of the data subjects. Companies must now clarify how long and to what extent they may use personal data in order to fulfil the requirements – or when new consent may need to be obtained. It remains to be seen how the courts will assess this, particularly with regard to the interpretation and determination of proportionality. It will be difficult for companies to assess what is still considered proportionate.

Many companies already rely on limited storage of personal data in their own economic interest. However, today’s judgement raises new legal questions and creates additional uncertainty. In a recent Bitkom survey, 9 out of 10 companies (94 per cent) already state that data protection costs are high, and in two thirds (63 per cent) they have increased in the past year. In addition, three quarters (76 per cent) state that legal uncertainty about the exact requirements of the GDPR is one of the biggest challenges when implementing data protection regulations in companies.“ says Susanne Dehmel, member of the Bitkom Executive Board, describing the situation.

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