> It is standard practise for companies in Europe (e.g. the bank I'm consulting for right now) to ensure that, when they subscribe to cloud services, their data is held stored and processed in datacentres within the EU, so that it is subject to EU legislation and, hence, the EU's data protection laws.

Absolutely. EU Data Protection Laws are so enshrined, I would argue that they are part of the culture. In the UK it's part of the educational syllabus to learn about the Data Protection Act.

If American companies cannot adhere to the act, companies will walk away from those services. I see a lucrative market opening up for "private clouds" whereby the requirement is, is the data "safe" is it vulnerable to American jurisdiction?

Is there a business opportunity here to brag about 100% none American? I don't see that being conducive to a free, open, global economy. Least of all between two of the largest economies.

There is rule-of-law in the EU and warrants do get issued and executed. The rabid pursuit of this by the US can only be counter productive in my mind. For everyone.