Case Law & Court Rules

On September 11, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) began hearing evidence from over 70 stakeholders in the case whose judgement shall outline the territorial scope of the right to be forgotten. The panel of 15 CJEU judges will rule in 2019. The request for a preliminary ruling (Case C-507/17) was […]

On July 12, 2018, the German federal court (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) overturned the judgment of the Berlin’s highest state court (Kammergerichts), which had denied the parents’ access to their daughter’s Facebook account. The case involved a mother trying to access the deceased 15-year-old daughter’s Facebook account in order to understand the cause of death. With its […]

On June 5, 2018, the European Court of Justice (CJEU), issued its preliminary ruling in C‑210/16, opining on the definition of data controller, applicable national law, and jurisdiction under EU data protection law according to Directive 95/46/EC. According to the CJEU’s judgement, EU companies that have been advertising through Facebook can be considered data controllers […]

The right to be forgotten has been judicially recognized by the CJEU with the Google Spain judgment  (Case C-131/12). According to the judgement, Europeans have the right to disappear from search engine’s results under certain conditions. The National Commission of Information Technologies and Liberties (CNIL), Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés, rejected some complaints […]

On June 27, 2017, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (“ECHR”) issued its judgment in the case of Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and Satamedia Oy v. Finland (application no. 931/13) holding that the publication of personal tax information does not violate Article 10 (freedom of expression) of European Convention on Human Rights. […]

On December 20, 2016, the Tribunale di Roma held the unauthorized use of a digital signature smart card could nullify an electronically signed agreement. In this case the Plaintiff had denied the digital subscription of an agreement that transferred stock ownership. Since the share transfer agreement was signed electronically, the judge found that the Codice dell’Amministrazione […]

On February 15, 2017, the Corte di Cassazione, the Italian Supreme Court, refused to hold that every criminal defendant has a right to have his or her personal data deleted from a published decision. The court must evaluate each case to determine if it is appropriate to omit certain personal data. The Supreme Court clarified the terms under which […]

On February 23, 2017, the Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA), ordered a mother to delete from her Facebook feed posts containing two  judgments that include private aspects of her family’s life and most of all her daughter’s life. The DPA noted that the posted judgments allowed the identification of the […]

On January 30, 2017, the Federal Court of Canada found Globe24h.com, a Romanian based website and its sole owner and operator, in violation of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). By way of background, the Romanian based website indexed and reposted Canadian court and tribunal decisions that were also available on Canadian legal […]

On October 19, 2016, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) presented its conclusions in Patrick Breyer v. Bundesrepublik Deutschland (case C‑582/14). According to the ECJ The dynamic internet protocol address of a visitor constitutes personal data, with respect to the operator of the website, if that operator has the legal means allowing it to identify […]