Court case 18 U 5493/19 Pre – Court Ruling (Germany, 2020)

The plaintiff's was a user account on the Facebook platform. She created her user account under a pseudonym. Facebook blocked her user account after the plaintiff had not complied with the defendant's request to change her profile name for a clear name. The plaintiff asserted claims against the defendant for the activation of her user account created under the pseudonym, as well as claims for damages and pre-judicial lawyer's fees. The Regional Court in Ingolstadt granted the action only with regard to the activation of the plaintiff's user account plus pro rata pre-judicial lawyer's fees and otherwise dismissed the action. Both parties filed an appeal against this judgement. Was it legitimate for the operator of the social network platform to ask for the user's clear name? On appeal by the defendant, the Higher Regional Court amended the final judgment of the Regional Court of Ingolstadt of 13 September 2019, Case No. 31 O 227/18, to the effect that the action was dismissed in its entirety. The Higher Regional Court dismissed the plaintiff's appeal. The Higher Regional Court in Munich held that the operator of a social network is entitled, in order to prevent unlawful conduct by its users, to require the use of clear names and to block the user account in the event of violations of this obligation.