- ECJ decides that Art. 16 para. 1 of Regulation No. 44/2001 is not applicable if a consumer also sues for assigned claims of others.
- The ECJ confirms that a private Facebook user retains consumer status under Art. 15 Regulation No. 44/2001 despite publications, lectures and donations.
- Consequence: Schremss’ lawsuit can still be heard before the original court with regard to his own claims.
Today, Thursday, the ECJ issued a Judgment in a preliminary ruling by the Austrian Supreme Court in the Schrems case pleases
In the original proceedings, Schrems appeared before the Austrian courts as a plaintiff on his own behalf (seeking, among other things, an injunction against the processing of his data), but also on behalf of other consumers who had assigned their claims to him. He established local jurisdiction on the basis of his status as a consumer.
The subject of the proceedings before the ECJ was therefore the question of whether Max Schrems, under the EuGVO is authorized to act also for other Facebook users as their assignee, and whether Schrems can still be considered a consumer at all, although his livelihood is now based on Facebook.
The ECJ answered the first question in the negative:
Article 16(1) of Regulation No 44/2001 is to be interpreted as meaning that it No application to an action brought by a consumer in which the consumer asserts in the forum not only his own claims but also claims brought by other consumers domiciled in the same Member State, in other Member States or in third countries. were assigned.
The second question, on the other hand, was answered in the affirmative:
Article 15 of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 […] must be interpreted as meaning that a user of a private Facebook account may not use the does not lose consumer status within the meaning of this Article, when he publishes books, gives lectures, operates websites, collects donations, and has the claims of numerous consumers assigned to him so that he can assert them in court.
This means that Mr. Schrems’ lawsuit can continue to be heard on his behalf.