The EU court said the bloc's executive authority violated a citizen's rights by transferring some of his personal data to the U.S. without proper safeguards.

In a first, the EU General Court ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission must pay damages to a German citizen for failing to comply with its own data protection regulations. The court determined that the Commission transferred the citizen's personal data to the United States without proper safeguards and ordered it to pay him 400 euros ($412) in damages.