# WhatsApp clears fast track to EU court, reshaping how privacy cases are fought
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# WhatsApp clears fast track to EU court, reshaping how privacy cases are fought
## The bloc’s top judges opened a faster legal route for WhatsApp to challenge EU-level rulings on privacy matters, a tactic other tech giants are likely to follow.
"A clash over how WhatsApp handles personal data reached a new stage in Europe on Tuesday, after judges in Luxembourg said the messaging app can go straight to EU courts to challenge a binding decision by Europe’s data watchdog, rather than waiting for national regulators.
In its ruling, the Court of Justice of the European Union said the watchdog’s decision in a transparency dispute against WhatsApp was not just procedural but a measure that set out binding legal findings with concrete effects. Because those conclusions were fixed at the EU level, judges rejected the idea that WhatsApp had to wait for a final national enforcement decision before seeking judicial review.
The judges did not weigh in on whether WhatsApp broke Europe’s privacy rules. Instead, they redrew the procedural map, sending the dispute back to the EU’s General Court and opening the door for closer scrutiny of the bloc’s data protection board in WhatsApp’s case."
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