A Belgian court yesterday gave Facebook 48 hours to stop tracking Internet users who do not have a Facebook account. If the US company refuses to comply, it faces fines of up to €250,000 (£177,000 or ~$267,500) per day.

"Today the judge... ordered the social network Facebook to stop tracking and registering Internet usage by people who surf the Internet in Belgium, in the 48 hours which follow this statement," the Belgian court said according to AFP.

The judgment is a result of Belgium's independent Privacy Commission taking Facebook to court for failing to comply with the country's privacy laws, as Ars reported back in June. The Privacy Commission wanted Facebook to implement a number of changes to its operations, including refraining from "systematically placing long-life and unique identifier cookies with non-users of Facebook." The commission always wanted Facebook to stop collecting and using user data through the use of cookies and social plug-ins unless it obtained an unambiguous and specific consent through an opt-in.

The demands were prompted by research carried out for the Privacy Commission, which found that Facebook tracked all visitors, even those who did not have an account or who had explicitly opted out of tracking. The court has now confirmed that the tracking cookie "is personal data, which Facebook can only use if the Internet user expressly gives their consent, as Belgian privacy law dictates."

Although this ruling only applies in Belgium, the Belgian Privacy Commission is part of a European task force that also includes data protection authorities from the Netherlands and Germany. Those other authorities have undoubtedly been following this case closely, and they may decide to initiate similar actions now that the Belgian court has found that the tracking cookie is personal data. That ruling may well encourage other EU courts to do the same.

This latest development is not Facebook's only privacy problem in Europe. Last month, the Court of Justice of the European Union effectively struck down the Safe Harbour framework, which regulated data flows across the Atlantic. It's still not clear how that situation will be resolved, leaving Facebook and companies like Google and Twitter with a great deal of uncertainty about their future in Europe.