COMECON MEDIA

Source: CJEU

Between 2011 and 2013, Mr Schrems brought a number of complaints against Facebook Ireland before the Irish Data Protection Commissioner which led to a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union in relation to the European Commission’s ‘Safe Harbour’ Decision (Case C-632/14).

Mr Schrems has now filed a class action against Facebook Ireland for breaches of Austrian, Irish and European privacy rules. He claims that certain clauses in the contracts entered into between Facebook Ireland Ltd, a subsidiary of the US company Facebook Inc., and Facebook users, are invalid on the basis of EU law governing consumer contracts.

Facebook Ireland argues that Mr Schrems cannot rely on the jurisdiction over consumer contracts because at the time he concluded his contract with Facebook Ireland he was using the social media site for commercial purposes. In addition, Mr Schrems cannot use the jurisdiction over consumer contracts for assigned claims on behal…

Source: BEUC NEWS - 14.07.2017


On 19 July, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) is holding a hearing about an Austrian collective action against Facebook. Max Schrems, the Austrian data protection campaigner, has brought a case to court in Austria on behalf of 25,000 Austrian and foreign consumers to claim compensation from Facebook for violation of their privacy rights.

In September of last year the Austrian Supreme Court asked the CJEU to decide about the admissibility of Max Schrems’ collective action. In particular the CJEU was asked to look into two points:Can a consumer bring assigned claims of other consumers to the court of his home country, even if these consumers live in other EU Member States and non-EU countries?Should Max Schrems, who initially used Facebook only for private purposes, be considered a ‘consumer’ and therefore be eligible to bring the case before the court where he lives (Vienna) or did he loose this right since he engaged into other activities at a later sta…

Commission response
See question(s) : E-003207/2017

11 July 2017 E-003207/2017
Answer given by Mr Moscovici on behalf of the Commission
The Commission proposal on value added tax (VAT) rates applied to books, newspapers and periodicals(1) was adopted on 1 December 2016 and negotiations on the text are still ongoing(2). It is a targeted proposal, which authorises Member States, without obligation, to align the reduced VAT rates they currently apply to books, newspapers or periodicals to electronically supplied publications.
The monitoring at EU level takes place as part of the review of the scope of reduced rates in line with Article 100 of the VAT Directive(3). To this extent, information is collected in respect of the VAT rates in place in each Member State.
Such information is currently published by the Commission in the document ‘VAT rates applied in the Member States of the European Union’(4), which primarily serves as an information tool for researchers, busin…