4 December 2015

Common Statement by the Contact Group of the Data Protection Authorities

of The Netherlands, France, Spain, Hamburg and Belgium

On 13 November 2014, Facebook announced a global revision of its data policy, cookie policy and
terms. Following this announcement, a Contact Group was created at European level comprising the
Data Protection Authorities of The Netherlands, France, Spain, Hamburg and Belgium.
The Contact Group has taken note of the judgement in summary proceedings of the President of the
Dutch-Speaking Court of First Instance of Brussel, Belgium, of 9 November 2015 in the case of the

President of the Belgian Data Protection Authority v. Facebook 1 as well as the recommendations of the
Belgian Data Protection Authority2.
In the judgement, the Court imposed upon Facebook Inc., Facebook Belgium SPRL and Facebook
Ireland Limited, in respect of every Internet user on Belgian territory who has not registered as a
member of the online social network of Facebook, two orders:
(1) to cease placing a datr cookie when they land on a web page of the facebook.com domain
without providing them with prior sufficient and adequate information about the fact that
Facebook places the datr cookie with them and about the way Facebook uses that datr cookie
through social plug-ins; and
(2) to cease collecting the datr cookie through social plug-ins placed on third-party websites.
While recognizing the right of Facebook to appeal the aforementioned judgment, the
contact group expects Facebook to comply with these orders in all territories of the EU as
a means of contributing to ensure consistency with the requirements of the European
Directive 95/46/EC and Directive 2002/58/EC, as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC.
This statement is without prejudice to the ongoing national investigations and to
measures that could consequently be imposed upon Facebook. The measures adopted by
Facebook should not bring undue prejudice to the internet user.

The full text of the order is accessible at https://www.privacycommission.be/en/news/judgment-facebookcase.

2

https://www.privacycommission.be/sites/privacycommission/files/documents/recommendation_04_2015_0.p
df.