Order of the President of the General Court of 29 October 2020 — Facebook Ireland v Commission

(Case T-452/20 R)

(Interim proceedings - Competition - Request for information - Article 18(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 - Application for interim measures - Urgency - Prima facie case - Weighing of competing interests)

(2021/C 19/58)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Facebook Ireland Ltd (Dublin, Ireland) (represented by: D. Jowell QC, D. Bailey, Barrister, J. Aitken, D. Das, S. Malhi, R. Haria, M. Quayle, Solicitors and T. Oeyen, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: G. Conte, C. Urraca Caviedes and C. Sjödin, acting as Agents)

Re:

Application under Articles 278 and 279 TFEU seeking the suspension of operation of Decision C(2020) 3013 final of the European Commission of 4 May 2020, relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 18(3) and Article 24(1)(d) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (Case AT.40684 — Facebook Marketplace).

Operative part of the order

The operation of Article 1 of Decision C(2020) 3013 final of the European Commission of 4 May 2020 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 18(3) and Article 24(1)(d) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 (Case AT.40684 — Facebook Marketplace) is suspended, in so far as the obligation set out therein relates to documents which are not linked to Facebook Ireland Ltd’s business activities and which contain sensitive personal data, and for as long as the procedure referred to in point 2 has not been put in place.

Facebook Ireland shall identify the documents containing the data referred to in point 1 and transmit them to the Commission on a separate electronic medium. Those documents shall then be placed in a virtual data room which shall be accessible to as limited a number as possible of members of the team responsible for the investigation, in the presence (virtual or physical) of an equivalent number of Facebook Ireland’s lawyers. The members of the team responsible for the investigation shall examine and select the documents in question, while giving Facebook Ireland’s lawyers the opportunity to comment on them before the documents considered relevant are placed on the file. In the event of disagreement as to the classification of a document, Facebook Ireland’s lawyers shall have the right to explain the reasons for their disagreement. In the event of continuing disagreement, Facebook Ireland may ask the Director for Information, Communication and Media at the Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition to resolve the disagreement.

3.	The application for interim relief is dismissed as to the remainder.

4.	The order of 24 July 2020, Facebook Ireland v Commission (T-452/20 R), is set aside.

5.	The costs are reserved.