BEUC: European Court of Justice hears consumer collective action case against Facebook

By -
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 stage, for instance by taking a public position against the defendant (Facebook) and raising donations.
The hearing and forthcoming decision by the Court of Justice could have major impacts for EU consumers. It is often the case that collective enforcement of consumer rights strand on procedural grounds. The CJEU is also entering unchartered territory when it comes to the jurisdiction of international collective actions. If the court would follow the argumentation of Max Schrems it would become easier for a large group of consumers to be represented in the country of one single consumer. This would be a big step towards access to justice for consumers in cases where companies use the same illegal practices across the EU.

MEIST GELESEN/POPULAR READS

EU Commission clears acquisition of Skoobe by Klio, Holtzbrinck, Verlagsgruppe Random House and Arvato CRM Solutions

By -
The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of joint control of the whole of Skoobe GmbH by Klio GmbH, Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH & Co. KG ("Holtzbrinck"), Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH ("Random House") and Arvato CRM Solutions GmbH ("Arvato"), all of Germany. Skoobe offers the temporary rental of e-books over its online platform www.skoobe.de and via its own application. Klio is active as a book retailer. Holtzbrinck is an international media company that is active in trade-book publishing, education and science, newspapers and magazines as well as electronic media and services. Random House is a publishing house of Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA ("Bertelsmann") active in the area of fictional and non-fictional books, books for children and adolescents, audio and e-books. Arvato is an international service company of Bertelsmann offering various technical services. Bertelsmann is an international med
Read more

CJEU on Spiegel Online: The use of a protected work for the purposes of reporting current events does not, in principle, require a prior request for authorisation

By -
Source: Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-516/17 Spiegel Online de en fr Freedom of establishment The use of a protected work for the purposes of reporting current events does not, in principle, require a prior request for authorisation Court of Justice of the European Union PRESS RELEASE No 101/19 Luxembourg, 29 July 2019 Judgment in Case C-516/17 Spiegel Online v Volker Beck The use of a protected work for the purposes of reporting current events does not, in principle, require a prior request for authorisation Furthermore, a work may be quoted by means of a hyperlink, provided that that quoted work, in its specific form, was previously made available to the public with the copyright holder’s authorisation or in accordance with a non-contractual licence or statutory authorisation Volker Beck, a former member of the Bundestag (Federal Parliament, Germany) is the author of a manuscript on criminal policy relating to sexual offences committed against minors, which was publish
Read more

EU Commission presents a directory of European films to facilitate on-line access

By -
Link - Source: EU Commission Other available languages: FR DE DA ES NL IT SV PT FI EL CS ET HU LT LV MT PL SK SL BG RO HR Brussels, 18 October 2018 On the occasion of the Marché international du film classique [International Classic Film Market] in Lyon, Mariya Gabriel, the Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, will today present the prototype of a directory of European films, a key action of the Digital4Culture strategy which is also part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. Launched with the assistance of the European Audiovisual Observatory, the new directory will help professionals, the public authorities and citizens to find information about European films and their availability on-line in video-on-demand (VOD) services throughout the European Union. Commissioner Gabriel said: "It is up to us to ensure that European works enjoy the audience that they deserve. Digital transformation has the potential to reinforce the positive impact of
Read more

EU-Mitgliedstaaten einigen sich auf niedrigere Mehrwertsteuer für E-Books

By -
Link 02/10/2018 Quelle: Vertretung der EU in Berlin Die Finanzminister der EU-Mitgliedstaaten haben heute (Dienstag) einen Durchbruch bei der Mehrwertsteuer erzielt. Unter anderem wurden die Mehrwertsteuersätze für elektronische Veröffentlichungen wie etwa E-Books, die derzeit in den meisten Mitgliedstaaten zum Normalsatz besteuert werden, an die günstigere Regelung für gedruckte Veröffentlichungen angepasst. Darüber hinaus einigte man sich auf neue Vorschriften zum Informationsaustausch und auf eine engere Zusammenarbeit zwischen nationalen Steuerbehörden und Strafverfolgungsbehörden. Betrug und Steuerhinterziehung in diesem Sektor dürften somit künftig schwieriger werden. „Glaubt man den jüngsten Zahlen, so gehen den Mitgliedstaaten jährlich immer noch rund 150 Mrd. Euro an MwSt. verloren. Die heutigen Vereinbarungen sind ein wichtiger Schritt zur Lösung dieses Problems“, erklärte EU-Wirtschafts- und Finanzkommissar Pierre Moscovici. Nach den geltenden Mehrwertsteuervorschriften
Read more

EU Court to rule about search engine de-referencing - Google v CNIL (France)

By -
Image
Source:  www.curia.europa.eu Court of Justice of the European Union PRESS RELEASE No 2/19 Luxembourg, 10 January 2019 Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-507/17 Google v CNIL (France) Advocate General Szpunar proposes that the Court should limit the scope of the de-referencing that search engine operators are required to carry out to the EU By decision of 21 May 2015, the President of the French Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties; ‘the CNIL’) served formal notice on Google that, when acceding to a request from a natural person for the removal of links to web pages from the list of results displayed following a search performed on the basis of that person’s name, it must apply that removal to all of its search engine’s domain name extensions. Google refused to comply with that formal notice, merely removing the links in question from only the results displayed following a search performe
Read more