Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 April 2022 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesgerichtshof – Germany) – Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, formerly Facebook Ireland Limited v Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen und Verbraucherverbände – Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e.V.
(Case C-319/20) 1
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data – Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – Article 80 – Representation of the data subjects by a not-for-profit association – Representative action brought by a consumer protection association in the absence of a mandate and independently of the infringement of specific rights of a data subject – Action based on the prohibition of unfair commercial practices, the infringement of a consumer protection law or the prohibition of the use of invalid general terms and conditions)
Language of the case: German
Referring court
Bundesgerichtshof
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, formerly Facebook Ireland Limited
Defendant: Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen und Verbraucherverbände – Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e.V.
Operative part of the judgment
Article 80(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which allows a consumer protection association to bring legal proceedings, in the absence of a mandate conferred on it for that purpose and independently of the infringement of specific rights of the data subjects, against the person allegedly responsible for an infringement of the laws protecting personal data, on the basis of the infringement of the prohibition of unfair commercial practices, a breach of a consumer protection law or the prohibition of the use of invalid general terms and conditions, where the data processing concerned is liable to affect the rights that identified or identifiable natural persons derive from that regulation.
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1 OJ C 359, 26.10.2020.