The European Court Of Justice has made a ruling in the 'Europe vs Facebook' case and have recommended an end to the so-called 'Safe Harbour' deal. This agreement between the EU and the US had allowed for EU citizens' data to be transferred through Ireland and on to America, as long as privacy and protection protocols were in place.
Austrian law student Max Schrems took the case against Safe Harbour, claiming that these protocols were irrelevant following the revelations of Edward Snowden about the widespread surveillance taking place in the US.
The case originally went through the Irish Data Commissioner, as Ireland is the location of Facebook's data regulations offices.
The Commissioner, however, said the data transfer was allowed under EU regulations.
The Irish High Court then decided to look to the European Court Of Justice for guidance and now ECJ advisor Yves Bot has found in Schrems' favour.

*YAY* AG at the #CJEU: #SafeHarbor is invalid. Irish #DPC has a duty to investigate. Further details as soon as we get the written version.

— Max Schrems (@maxschrems) September 23, 2015

“This is a hugely important decision.” one internet publishing insider said. “There has been a wholesale abuse of the information gathered by companies about individuals, via the internet. Information is sought for one reason and is blithely used for other purposes entirely – including surveillance. It is wrong – and the European Court of Justice seems to be ready to call time on that.”
While the ruling is an important one, with clear benefits in terms of the privacy of citizens of the EU, initial reactions suggest that it will be bad for business, throwing into jeopardy plans for an EU-US free trade area. 
“The bottom line is that tech companies – the likes of Facebook included, thought they could ride roughshod over people’s right to privacy,” the insider added. “At long last, rather than taking advantage of the widespread public ignorance on the issue – as the US and the UK governments have done – the European Court is standing up for those rights. No one in the corporate tech world has given a hoot about data protection and privacy rights. It is about time that someone put a stop to their gallop. Hopefully that will be the effect of this case."