On the 19th of July 2017, Max Schrems visited the MPI along with his lawyers following the hearing of a case at the CJEU C-496/16 Schrems. In 2014, Mr. Schrems brought a collective action against Facebook Ireland Ltd before the district court in Vienna, the court for the place in which he is domiciled as a consumer per Art.16 Brussels I Regulation.
In order to bring this Austrian-style collective action – in which numerous violations of EU privacy laws are alleged – Mr. Schrems had created an application that allowed other Facebook users – around 25,000 users thus far, both of EU and third-country status – to assign their rights to him under Austrian law.
The questions referred to the CJEU by the Austrian Supreme Court concerned:
- whether Schrems could be understood to be acting as a consumer for the purposes of Art.15 Brussels I, and
- whether he could rely on Art.16 of the Regulation as a consumer to found jurisdiction in the Austrian or Viennese courts not only for his but also the assigned claims, whether the assignors are domiciled in the same Member State, in another Member State or in a non-EU country.
The Opinion of AG Bobek in this case will be delivered on the 31st of October
