Under Austrian law, a US-style class action suit in which people can collectively sue a company isn’t possible. However, interested parties are allowed to assign their claims to a single person who can then sue on behalf of the third parties and redistribute any damages awarded.
The case was referred on Tuesday because the lawsuit mainly covers privacy law matters which should be dealt with by the regional civil court, Schrems said. Schrems and his team had decided to file the suit first with the commercial court because there were other matters in the suit that should be dealt with by the commercial court under Austrian law, he said.
Schrems is still confident that the court will accept the case, because the commercial court also could have rejected the case without referring it, he said.
The question of whether national courts have jurisdiction over Facebook’s privacy policy has been tested in other countries too.
In Germany for example several lawsuits against Facebook Ireland over privacy matters were rejected by courts that argued that because Facebook’s European headquarters is located in Ireland, Irish law applies. However, another German court ruled last year that German data protection law does apply to Facebook, contradicting the other decisions.
The issue of jurisdiction will probably be a big part of Facebook’s defence, said Schrems, adding that they will probably argue that they should be sued in California, where Facebook is based. However, because Schrems is Austrian, he should be able to sue Facebook Ireland in his home court, he said.
Loek Essers, IDG News Service
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