DHe could take legal action against Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv) against Facebook parent company Meta. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg ruled on Thursday. He thus strengthened the judicial control of large Internet platforms. By law, consumer protection litigation does not require a specific order from a user (Case C-319/20).

Vzbv alleges that Meta violated data, consumer protection laws and competition rules while providing free games from third-party providers on the platform’s “App Center”. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) considers the case to be well-founded, but not sure if it is permissible.

He asked the ECJ about this. Judges in Kalsruh referred to the comprehensive control rights that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force on May 25, 2018, gives national data protection officers here at the headquarters of the meta platforms. The name of the company is in Ireland.

The ECJ has now decided to continue granting class action rights to EU states. It does not require an order from the affected users. It is sufficient to infringe and violate the rights of “identifiable natural persons” in accordance with the Association.

The right to prosecute in the public interest

As a justification, the Luxembourg judges emphasized that the right to collective action was in the public interest. Because it pursues the goal of ensuring the rights of consumers. Violation of consumer protection may go hand in hand with violation of data protection.

GDPR is not a barrier to nationally regulated class action law as in Germany. Instead, the ECJ argued that it was “in line with GDPR’s goals, especially to ensure a high level of protection of personal data.” Following the verdict, BGH can now decide on the content of vzbv’s allegations against Meta. In their order for reference, Judges Karl Stroehe had already indicated that this was reasonable.