The European Court of Justice [official website] on Thursday dismissed [judgment] Austrian attorney Max Schrems’ class action privacy lawsuit against Facebook, ruling that Schrems can sue Facebook in his home country as an individual.

Schrems has continually campaigned against Facebook’s use of users’ personal information. Schrems was a party to the case against “Safe Harbor,” the EU-US data sharing agreement. In that case, the EU court issued a ruling [judgement] in support of Schrems after he successfully proved that Facebook was not protecting its users against US intelligence.

In Schrems’ current class action suit, Facebook argued that Schrems did not fall under the consumer protections in Europe. The court agreed with this argument. A court press release [text, PDF] stated that the activities of, “publishing books, giving lectures, operating websites, fundraising and being assigned the claims of numerous consumers for the purpose of their enforcement in judicial proceedings do not entail the loss of a private Facebook account user’s status as a ‘consumer.'”

Though the class action case was dismissed, Schrems sees this as a victory that Facebook will have to defend its use of individuals’ personal information in Austrian courts. Schrems stated [press release, PDF] that, “Facebook will now have to explain to a neutral court whether its business model is in line with stringent European privacy laws. This is a huge blow for them. Unfortunately, the ECJ has missed a unique opportunity to finally enable collective redress.”