Verein für Konsumenteninformation (VKI) – Court Ruling (Austria, 2020)

The Verein für Konsumenten Information (VKI) is an Austrian consumer rights organisation and entiteld to bring collective redress lawsuits and class actions in the interest of consumers pursuant to §§ 28 and 29 of the Austrian Consumer Protection Act (Konsumentenschutzgesetz - KSchG). The VKI brought a lawsuit against two car rental companies due to their allegedly unlawful general terms and conditions, which contained clauses that are (accordning to the VKI) violating Article 25(2) GDPR. The decisions of the first and second court were appealed, the case is currently (January 2021) still pending at the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof - OGH), which referred to following question to the CJEU under Article 267 TFEU: Does the GDPR preclude national regulations which, among other things, grant associations the power to take action for violations of the GDPR by way of an action before the civil courts, irrespective of the violation of specific rights of individual data subjects, inter alia from the point of view of the prohibition of the use of ineffective general terms and conditions? The OGH will take its decision in the merits of the case once the CJEU has decided on the requested preliminary ruling. This page will be adapted accordingly then and linked to the CJEU decision which will also be published on GDPRhub.eu.