That’s a really interesting point, has it been tested in court? The article is about US companies and US websites so I figured EU law was irrelevant, but I am curious to see if the EU can claim jurisdiction for actions foreign companies take outside the EU, regardless of if they have any official EU presence.

[–] hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Well I can not give you a specific case for that, but it widely accepted that online actions against users from the EU that violate laws in the EU can get persued.

Do you remember seeing some US websites saying "we don't service EU users at the moment"? That's because they didn't want to get a lawyer so they can comply with the EU GDPR back then. I assume this is because they knew there was some precedent.

If you are keen on it I can go digging for case law though.

EDIT: Nevermind I literally only had to do one Google search and here's an official link: https://gdpr.eu/compliance-checklist-us-companies/

Note that one of the headings literally says "Why US companies must comply with the GDPR" and the answer is "because it is extra-territorial in scope".

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

On that page you linked, they say “So far, the EU’s reach has not been tested, but no doubt data protection authorities are exploring their options on a case-by-case basis.” So it hasn’t really been tested yet it seems. It’s true that there are extradition treaties and interpol that aid in cross-border prosecution, but that tends to be used primarily when the alleged crime happened in the prosecuting country’s jurisdiction, or the alleged crime is handled similarly in both countries. A GDPR violation by a US company wouldn’t be considered a crime at all in the US, so it’s entirely possible that they might decline to assist in prosecution.

[–] hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Ok you wound me up now so I had a little scouring of the internet.

Yes, I can not find case law of extradition of US based companies through US entities.

What I can find is a couple of cases against bigger companies that also act in the realm of the EU. Google has been fined in the Netherlands for global violations if I understand correctly. Meta has been fined even a few times for global violations, enforced in Ireland.

So yes, technically enforcement in the US is not guaranteed, but they basically can't build up their company in the EU anymore unless they deal with it. It's not perfect, but violations can still suck for business expansion, and that is good. and then I do have to look into the new EU data privacy laws if they changed enforcement or anything else important.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That makes sense. Companies with no presence in the EU can likely skirt the rules, but any large company with an EU presence will be compelled to follow them.

[–] hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah

Also genuinely thank you for making me look into this. It's nice to know how it works:D

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Glad we both leaned something :)