European Court Ruling Opens Door for Privacy Action Ramp-Up

Facebook Inc. and other companies subject to Europe’s data protection regime could face heightened privacy enforcement in the wake of a court ruling on regulatory oversight within the bloc.

The Tuesday ruling from the European Union’s Court of Justice opened the door for other authorities besides a company’s lead regulator to pursue potential privacy violations in certain circumstances. Those circumstances include when the matter is urgent or when the lead regulator decides not to investigate.

Usually companies following EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, known as the GDPR, are supervised by a so-called one-stop-shop system in which the authority where a ...