The European Court of Justice has declared a planned cross-border mass action against Facebook in Austria inadmissible. The Data Protector Max Schrems is refore not allowed to go to court in name of thousands of foreign users against social network.

In his own case, however, Austrian should sue Facebook in his homeland, although company has its European seat in Ireland, supreme EU judges decided. Schrems had called on right as a consumer to sue international corporations in home country instead of abroad.

Schrems had filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook in Austria for alleged violations of Austrian, Irish and European data protection rules. It calls for conclusion that certain contractual clauses of Facebook are ineffective. In addition, it requires for himself and or users omission of use of data and compensation. Facebook was of opinion that Schrems could only sue at head office in Ireland.

Only personal action possible

The legal conflict of activist against social network has been taking place for years: Schrems had already filed a complaint against Facebook in 2011 in Ireland because he accused network of data breaches. Since Irish Data Protection authority did not rule within three years, he moved to court in 2014 in Austria. Since n, responsibilities have been disputed.

According to Schrems 25,000, this lawsuit would have been connected to Facebook users from several countries, including more than 5,000 from Germany. Schrems had already made a stir in his ongoing dispute with Facebook 2015 with anor procedure before ECJ: The court tipped EU's so-called safe Harbor Agreement for data transfer to United States. The judges decided that private data in United States was not sufficiently protected from access by authorities and intelligence services.

Date Of Update: 26 January 2018, 12:03