Companies Face Possible Data-Transfer Turmoil in EU Court Ruling

U.S. companies may need to brace for tougher restrictions on importing data from the European Union after the bloc’s top court rules next week on two legal mechanisms most use to ship the information.

The restrictions “will be confirmed, and probably strengthened” in the EU Court of Justice’s decision, said Eduardo Ustaran, global co-head of Hogan Lovells’ privacy and cybersecurity practice. He cautioned, however, that “we don’t know the precise position the court will take.”

At stake is the transatlantic data market—worth hundreds of billions of dollars —that lets companies such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Facebook Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. ...