Case T-738/16: Order of the General Court of 14 December 2020 — La Quadrature du Net and Others v Commission (Area of freedom, justice and security — Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data — Transfer of personal data to the United States — Declaration of invalidity of the contested measure — Action which has become devoid of purpose — No need to adjudicate)
Date: 2020-12-14
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: United States, cross-frontier data flow, data collection, data protection, exchange of information, personal data








C_2021053EN.01004001.xml










15.2.2021   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 53/40






Order of the General Court of 14 December 2020 — La Quadrature du Net and Others v Commission
(Case T-738/16) (1)

(Area of freedom, justice and security - Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data - Transfer of personal data to the United States - Declaration of invalidity of the contested measure - Action which has become devoid of purpose - No need to adjudicate)
(2021/C 53/53)
Language of the case: French

Parties


Applicants: La Quadrature du Net (Paris, France), French Data Network (Amiens, France), Fédération des fournisseurs d’accès à Internet associatifs (Fédération FDN) (Amiens) (represented by: A. Fitzjean Ò. Cobhthaigh, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: H. Kranenborg and D. Nardi, acting as Agents)

Intervener in support of the applicant: Union fédérale des consommateurs — Que choisir (UFC — Que choisir) (Paris, France) (represented by: F.-P. Lani, lawyer)

Interveners in support of the defendant: Czech Republic (represented by: M. Smolek, J. Vláčil and O. Serdula, acting as Agents), Federal Republic of Germany (represented by: S. Eisenberg, S. Heimerl, D. Klebs and J. Möller, acting as Agents), French Republic (represented by: E. Armoët and E. de Moustier, acting as Agents), Kingdom of the Netherlands (represented by: M. Bulterman and C. Schillemans, acting as Agents), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (represented by: S. Brandon, acting as Agent, and J. Holmes QC), United States of America (represented by: H. Viaene, C. Evrard, E. Valgaeren, P. Wytinck, lawyers, S. Kingston and E. Barrington, Senior Counsel), Digitaleurope (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: J. Cahir, V. Power, Solicitors, and M. Gray, Senior Counsel), Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Washington, United States) (represented by: J. Bourgeois and M. Meulenbelt, lawyers), BSA Business Software Alliance, Inc. (Washington, DC, United States) (represented by: B. Van Vooren and K. Van Quathem, lawyers)

Re:

Application under Article 263 TFEU for annulment of Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2016/1250 of 12 July 2016 pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (OJ 2016 L 207, p. 1).

Operative part of the order







1.


There is no longer any need to adjudicate on the present action.










2.


The European Commission shall bear its own costs and pay the costs incurred by La Quadrature du Net, French Data Network and Fédération des fournisseurs d’accès à Internet associatifs (Fédération FDN).










3.


The Czech Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Union fédérale des consommateurs — Que choisir (UFC — Que choisir), DigitalEurope, Microsoft Corp. and BSA Business Software Alliance, Inc., shall bear their own costs.






(1)  OJ C 6, 9.1.2017.