BRUSSELS—The European Union's highest court on Tuesday confirmed it would decide early next week on a highly publicized case that could invalidate a data pact between the EU and the U.S. that is critical to thousands of businesses.

Judges at the European Court of Justice will deliver their decision on the morning of Oct. 6, less than two weeks after an adviser to the court published a non-binding recommendation that the so-called Safe Harbor agreement should be scrapped.

A court decision invalidating Safe Harbor risks wreaking havoc on the large numbers of companies using the framework to transfer data for everything from payroll information to company phone books.

The 15-year-old trans-Atlantic deal allows firms, such as Facebook Inc. and Yelp Inc., to store Europeans' data in the U. S.—as long as the companies agree to comply with Europe's stricter privacy laws.

Yves Bot, an advocate general to the ECJ, said last week the deal should be nullified because Europeans' data is unprotected in the U.S., where intelligence services engage in mass surveillance.

The decision to move ahead so rapidly with the announcement of the judgment suggests the court is aware of the importance of the ruling for a large number of businesses.

"Whilst it is possible…it's not normal to only take two weeks from opinion to decision," said Christopher Fretwell, a spokesman for the ECJ.

On average, it takes between three and six months from a court adviser's opinion until a decision is published, according to Mr. Fretwell. That is largely because the documents need to be translated into the EU's 24 official languages.

But he said it is possible to speed up that process, especially if judges decide to prioritize the case, or if much of the text is already translated —for example, if the judges replicate large parts of the advocate general's opinion as fact.

The U.S. this week criticized Mr. Bot for basing his opinion on "inaccurate assertions" about U.S. intelligence practices. The U.S. mission to the EU rejected the accusation of mass surveillance, claiming that the National Security Agency program Prism, which Mr. Bot alluded to, focuses on specific foreign-intelligence targets.

The timing of the court's decision is awkward as Washington and Brussels have been working for almost two years to update the agreement, which was called into question following revelations in 2013 of widespread U.S. spying.

Despite the opinion, both U.S. and EU officials say they want to update the deal, which is still being negotiated and should conclude soon. But it is unclear now whether that would come before the court's decision on Tuesday or afterwards.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 29, 2015 07:45 ET (11:45 GMT)

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