Facebook lost a legal battle on Friday with Ireland’s data privacy watchdog over an EU privacy decision that could result in the social network being forced to stop transferring data to the US.

The Irish High Court rejected Facebook’s bid to block a draft decision by the country’s Data Protection Commission to inquire into, and order the suspension of, the company’s data flows between the EU and the US.

Judge David Barniville wrote in his judgement that he concluded Facebook “must fail on those grounds of challenge and that it is, therefore, not entitled to any of the reliefs claimed in the proceedings”.

The Irish watchdog had launched its inquiry last year shortly after a ruling by the EU’s top court striking down an agreement covering EU-US data transfers known as Privacy Shield, saying it didn’t do enough to protect users from US government cybersnooping. The Data Protection Commission “welcomes today’s judgment”, spokesman Graham Doyle said.

Facebook said it looked forward “to defending our compliance” to the commission, “as their preliminary decision could be damaging not only to Facebook, but also to other businesses.”