Vienna: An Austrian court has rejected a class action case against Facebook for alleged privacy breaches, saying it lacks jurisdiction to decide the matter, court officials said on Wednesday.
Law graduate Max Schrems and 25,000 other users are suing Facebook for various rights violations, including what they call its "illegal" tracking of their data and its involvement in the US National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance programme.
Facebook's legal team argued that the case was not admissible in an Austrian court because "there is no legal basis for a US-style class action".
The social media giant also accused Schrems of launching the lawsuit for financial gain rather than out of concern for consumer rights.
A judge in Vienna sided with the US company, ruling that Schrems had used one of his two Facebook accounts for professional reasons, meaning he could no longer be considered a private consumer.
"Therefore the court has rejected the case because it does not lie in its jurisdiction," a spokeswoman for the civil court told AFP.
