Court case 4 U 484/20 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2021)

A Facebook user, the data subject, posted content that violated Facebook´s policy about mobbing and bullying. As a result, the post was erased and the user was set into a "Readonly"-Mode which banned him from actively using his Facebook profile. Information about the ban became part of the dataset about the data subject. In previous proceedings at the Regional Court of Ellwagen, the legal dispute between the parties were the questions concerning the context in which the content was posted, whether the policy was valid, whether the ban constituted a violation of the freedom of expression, and whether the consequence of the "Readonly" mode was permissible. The Regional Court of Ellwangen dismissed the case. In its decision, the Regional Court of Ellwagen held that the policy was valid and that the data subject violated Facebook's policy with his bullying and harassment. The information about the erasure and "Readonly" mode of the data subject is being processed by the data controller. Since the data subject was appealing the decision of the first court on the false use of law and on the grounds that there was no violation of the Facebook's policy, the data subject argued that the controller is obliged to correct the stored dataset on the data subject and erase the information of the violation of the policy pursuant to Article 16 GDPR. In its decision, the court held that Facebook's policy was binding and that the content posted by the data subject violated the policy. The data controller had the right to erase the data subject's content and to ban the data subject from actively using its services. Therefore, the personal data that was processed was correct and no right for rectification of the data pursuant to Article 16 GDPR could be exercised.