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Vienna (AP) - The legal dispute between the Viennese data protection activist Max Schrems and Facebook ends up before the Supreme Court in Austria.
As the Austrian news agency APA reported on Monday, both Facebook and Max Schrems have appealed against an earlier judgment by the Vienna Higher Regional Court (OLG Vienna) that Schrems had asked the Supreme Court to refer the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for clarification , announced the data protection organization noyb on Monday.
Schrems has already achieved two spectacular successes before the ECJ in the course of its disputes with the US group, which concern the entire data exchange between the US and the European Union.
In October 2015, at Schrems' instigation, the ECJ overturned the EU-US data protection agreement “Safe Harbor”.
Last June, Schrems brought down the successor regulation “Privacy Shield” before the ECJ.
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The current legal dispute concerns, among other things, the question of whether Facebook users have given their consent to the US network or have concluded a contract with the company, since Facebook offers advertising as a supposed service.
The two things are regulated differently in the GDPR.
Facebook believes that users are entering into a contract because they receive personalized advertising.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is therefore only applicable to a limited extent.
The data protection association noyb pointed out that the GDPR has very strict rules for consent.
"Users must be fully informed, have the free choice to say yes or no, and they must be able to expressly consent to any type of processing."
In addition, users can withdraw their consent at any time free of charge.
“However, contracts are a matter for national law and are usually much more flexible.
Users don't need to understand a contract to be bound by it.
Details can be hidden in general terms and conditions and they usually don't give users a choice. "
The Austrian courts that had been involved in the matter up to now sided with Facebook.
The civil regional court ruled in the summer that the data processing was in conformity with the contract and the law.
The OLG also shared this view.
In its judgment, the Vienna Higher Regional Court also assumes a contract on the grounds that users receive advertising, so the data can be processed for it.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210315-99-827773 / 3
Communication noyb