Vienna District Court has dismissed a class-action civil suit against Facebook, headed by Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems, saying it has no jurisdiction. Mr. Schrems, who is representing some 25,000 Facebook users outside of North America and runs an organization called Europe vs. Facebook, alleges that Facebook’s data-use policy is invalid under EU law, that there is insufficient effective consent to many types of its use of data, that Facebook tracks its users on external websites through ‘Like buttons, ‘ and that Facebook passes on user’s data to external applications without authorization.
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However, the regulator declined to pursue the matter – a decision that Mr Schrems subsequently challenged in the Irish High Court.
©2015 by The Associated Press.
He said his client had merely used Facebook to promote his Europe-v-Facebook (EvF) advocacy group, which campaigns for an overhaul of European Union privacy laws. Just last month, Belgium’s Data protection watchdog had revealed that it was suing Facebook due to the company’s inappropriate privacy practices.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a court in Vienna rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction over the case.
The court ruled that the case should be brought before another court in another country, and not in Austria, she said, adding that the Vienna court didn’t say where the suit should be filed. So, he can’t rely on the consumer law, and because of that, the court can’t accept the claim.
Facebook said it believed the litigation was “unnecessary” and that it was pleased with the latest ruling.
This is not the only case against Facebook in which jurisdiction and the place where personal data is stored plays a crucial role.
The next phase of the case will be heard at the Higher Regional Court (“Oberlandesgericht”) and if that proves unsuccessful can be appealed at the Austrian Supreme Court (“Oberster Gerichtshof”).
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The case has been brought against Facebook’s European headquarters in Dublin, which registers all accounts outside the United States and Canada – making up some 80% of Facebook’s 1.35 billion users. It declined to investigate claims by whistleblower Edward Snowden that Facebook contributed to the “Prism” surveillance programme operated by the NSA.
