Enlarge image
A sign in front of the ECJ in Luxembourg
Photo: Arne Immanuel Bänsch / DPA
According to an opinion by Advocate General Richard de la Tour, consumer advocates should be able to sue against data protection violations by Internet companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook) even without specific instructions from those affected.
The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not stand in the way of a corresponding German regulation.
The advocate general's opinions are not binding on judges at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), but they often follow the recommendations in his opinions.
The background to the procedure (Az. C-319/20) is that in Germany not only the supervisory authorities can take action against data protection violations.
It is also possible for competitors and associations, institutions and chambers to sue in such cases without the instruction of a person concerned.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) had asked the ECJ to clarify whether the provisions of the GDPR oppose such a national regulation.
In his Opinion, the Advocate General has now proposed that the GDPR be interpreted in such a way that it allows national regulations that allow associations "to safeguard consumer interests" to file appropriate actions - even without commissioning the injured people if this is to "protect the collective interests of the Consumer «serves.
Dispute: Automatic consent to data transfer
The specific dispute between German consumer advocates and the meta-company Facebook is about a relatively clear violation of data protection law by the company, according to the BGH judge Thomas Koch.
The umbrella association of consumer organizations had complained that Facebook had violated data protection when providing free games from other providers.
Specifically: In November 2012, in the so-called app center of the social network, users automatically consented to the transmission of various data to the operators of the games by clicking on "Play now".
They also allowed the applications to post "status messages, photos and more" on their behalf.
The user remains in the dark about what will happen to his data, said Koch in May 2020.
mak / dpa