Facebook Ireland – Court Ruling (Austria, 2021)

In the proceedings, the plaintiff filed a total of 12 applications. The court ruled on 6 of these applications by partial judgment of 23 June 2021. The proceedings were interrupted with regard to the remaining 5 applications until the CJEU has ruled on the preliminary ruling proceedings initiated by order of 23 June 2021. An overall short summary can be found [https://noyb.eu/en/breaking-austrian-ogh-asks-cjeu-if-facebook-undermines-gdpr-2018 here]. This partial judgment only concerns applications 1 - 4 as well as 11 and 12, so that only the relevant facts are reproduced in abbreviated form below. The facts relevant for the remaining interrupted proceedings, for which the preliminary ruling procedure has been initiated at the CJEU, are presented there. The plaintiff is Max Schrems. The defendant is Facebook Ireland. The court first explains how Facebook works. These findings are only presented in a roughly abbreviated form in the following: Facebook provides a platform on which more than 2.2 billion users worldwide can upload data and respond to data uploaded by other users. This includes text contributions, pictures, videos, events, comments, "likes", markings on photos and much more. In addition, users network with each other in so-called "friendships". Facebook itself does not generate any content itself and only provides the infrastructure (free of charge). Facebook receives the (linked) personal data. The economic model of the defendant is to generate revenue through personalised advertising and commercial content based on preferences and interests of users. The plaintiff has been using his Facebook account for private purposes since 8 June 2008. In doing so, he decides himself with whom he is in contact, whether and to whom he sends messages, what information he enters in his profile, etc. The plaintiff's Facebook friends also regularly save posts by the plaintiff or about the plaintiff. The first four applications dealt with the "division of roles u