On October 10, 2015, the Vienna Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht Wien) issued a written decision in the Austrian Data Protection action against Facebook. The Court of Appeal overturned the Vienna Regional Court’s decision of July 2015 that had rejected plaintiff Maximilian Schrems’ complaint for lack of jurisdiction. See here. On July 14, 2015, the plaintiff had appealed (here in German) arguing that the court’s conclusion that it did not have jurisdiction was grounded on wrong factual and legal bases.
The Court of Appeal decided in his favor 20 of his 22 claims that the lower court had rejected. The Court of Appeal found that Plaintiff is not a “professional litigant” but that he acts as a consumer and can therefore bring his claims in Vienna. This is not a decision on the merit and, after this appeal, the case will go back to the lower court.
The Court of Appeal has not granted Schrems the right to represent other consumers via an Austrian “class action”. However, according to Schrems, the issue is to decided by the Austrian Supreme Court and/or the European Court of Justice.
Press release is available here. More information on the action is available at http://europe-v-facebook.org…
Related information is available at http://www.technethics.com…
For more information, Francesca Giannoni-Crystal
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