Microsoft refuses to give e-mails stored in Europe to the US for the time being

Microsoft has so far refused to hand over the e-mail data it has stored in Europe to the United States, despite an order. The company says it will not hand over emails while the appeal is pending.

A US judge ruled Friday that Microsoft can no longer delay handing over e-mail data to the United States. However, in a response, Microsoft said it would not heed the ruling for the time being, reports Reuters news agency. The Redmond-based company wants to await the appeal before revealing email details, because this would be “the correct procedure”. It will be announced on September 5 how the lawsuit will continue.

At the end of last month, a US judge ruled that Microsoft is obliged to hand over e-mails stored in Europe to the US if the authorities request it. However, the judge then also said that it did not have to hand over the data as long as the appeal procedure was ongoing. So the court returned to that on Friday.

Microsoft has stored e-mail data from European customers in data centers in Ireland. According to Microsoft, it cannot be obliged to hand over this data to the US, but the US court ruled against the company. The US Attorney’s Office had requested emails that are part of a criminal investigation.