Australia’s privacy watchdog, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), can proceed with its Federal Court case against Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal after the High Court declined to intervene.
Facebook has been appealing against the case since 2020, arguing that its US-based entity could not be served with legal papers by an Australian court because it did not conduct business in Australia at the time of the data harvesting scandal.
However, the full bench of the Federal Court overturned this argument in February last year, and the High Court has now revoked Facebook’s special leave to appeal due to a change in court rules. The case could expose Facebook’s US and Ireland entities to civil penalties over the breach of the privacy of more than 300,000 Australians caught up in the scandal.
The decision is seen as an important step in holding global digital platforms accountable for their handling of personal information.