CJEU advocate general’s opinion states Mr Schrems may sue Facebook Ireland before the Austrian courts
Advocate General Michal Bobek, in his non-binding opinion, proposes that the Court of Justice answer the Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court of Austria) that Mr Schrems may sue Facebook Ireland through an Austrian court, but that the case should remain limited to his own personal claim and cannot involve claims assigned to him by other consumers.
The opinion follows a request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberster Gerichtshof on two issues: the concept of consumers and the jurisdiction over assigned claims. (Case C-498/16 — Schrems).
Mr Schrems started legal proceedings against Facebook Ireland before a court in Austria. He alleged that the company has infringed his privacy and data protection rights. Other Facebook users assigned their claims for allegations of the same infringements to him.
Facebook Ireland challenged the international jurisdiction of the Austrian court, alleging Mr Schrems could not be regarded as a consumer due to his professional activities as a privacy campaigner and therefore could not benefit from the consumer privilege of suing in his own place of domicile, nor could additional claims be assigned to him.
List of documents
- Opinion of Advocate General
- Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters
Summaries of EU legislation
- Court jurisdiction in legal cases involving different EU countries
- Empowering European consumers and boosting their trust
- Strengthening EU consumer rights
- Protection of personal data
- Protection of personal data (from 2018)
- Data protection in the electronic communications sector
- Protecting EU citizens’ privacy in data transfers to the US
Glossary terms of the Summaries of EU legislation
Related documents
- Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the first annual review of the functioning of the EU-US Privacy Shield (COM(2017) 611)
- Commission staff working document accompanying the document ‘Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the first annual review of the functioning of the EU-US Privacy Shield’ (SWD(2017) 344)