"We both believe that companies who direct their services to European consumers should be subject to EU data protection laws. Otherwise, they should not be able

"We both believe that companies who direct their services to European consumers should be subject to EU data protection laws. Otherwise, they should not be able to do business on our internal market. This also applies to social networks with users in the EU." EU law will be enforced even if the company is based in a third country and has its data centres outside the EU, the statement reaffirmed. I'm reading this as suggesting they'll set up a firewall to block non-EU websites that don't adhere to EU data protection law. That would be a cure worse than the disease. (But yes, the Register's tabloid-speak grates.)