A court in Vienna has rejected a class-action suit against Facebook that centered on how the social network collected and used data on its 1.4 billion users.

The case was led by Max Schrems, an Austrian law student, who had collected roughly 60,000 signatures from people around the world as part of the lawsuit — the largest privacy class-action case brought against Facebook.

The lawsuit was one of a growing number of regulatory headaches for Facebook in Europe, as policy makers and regulators question the company’s growing power over how individuals in the region access online services.

Mr. Schrems, who said he planned to appeal the decision by mid-July, and who has filed several other legal challenges against the social network, had accused Facebook of violating European privacy rules, which provide greater protection for how personal data is used than United States laws do.

“You always run this risk with these complicated cases,’’ he said, “because they can take years to play out in the courts.”

Facebook had strongly denied the accusations, and late Monday, the Vienna Regional Court rejected the effort by Mr. Schrems, saying that his prominent public role in challenging Facebook’s use of personal data meant that he could not pursue the civil litigation.

The court also said that it did not have jurisdiction for many of the complainants, as they were not based in Austria.

Facebook said in a statement that the litigation had been “unnecessary” and that it was pleased by the ruling. Facebook could have faced penalties of up to $14 million if it had been found to have breached Europe’s data protection rules.

The company, led by its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is at the center of a growing debate in Europe about how online personal data should be collected and used.

At least five European regulators — Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain — are investigating whether the social network’s revamped privacy policy complies with their national data-protection laws.

The new policy, which came into force worldwide in January, gives Facebook more power to use information in users’ posts, messages and other online interactions for the company’s main business goal: to sell more advertising. European regulators are examining whether such use of online data offers individuals sufficient control over how information about them is used.

While many European regulators have pursued investigations of Facebook, the company says that because its international headquarters are in Dublin, it falls under — and complies with — rules from the Irish data protection authority.

Yet in a recent interview, Helen Dixon, the Irish data protection chief, said her office was still investigating whether Facebook’s new privacy policy met those standards.

“We’re still examining the Facebook case,” she said. “We haven’t yet come to a conclusion.”