Court case I ZR 186/17 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2025)

The Federal Union of Consumer Organisations and Associations (Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen und Verbraucherverbände – Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband eV), a German consumer association, brought an action before the Regional Court of Berlin (Landesgericht Berlin – LG Berlin), claiming that Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd (the controller) failed to comply with the legal requirements to obtain valid consent from the users of its app centre under the GDPR because the controller had not fulfilled its information obligations. The action was brought independently of a specific infringement of a data subject’s GDPR rights and without a mandate from a specific data subject. The LG Berlin upheld the action; the controller appealed this decision before the Higher Regional Court of Berlin (Kammergericht Berlin – KG Berlin). This appeal was dismissed and the controller further appealed the judgement of KG Berlin before the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH). The BGH had doubts as to the admissibility of the action brought by the Federal Union. Therefore, it referred a question to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of Article 80(1), 80(2) and 84(1) GDPR. The CJEU ruled on 11 July 2024 in C‑757/22, Meta Platforms Ireland (Representative action) that a violation of the controller’s information obligation can be subject to a representative action under Article 80(2) GDPR. The BGH ruled - implementing the CJEU's decision -, that qualified entities are authorized, pursuant to the [https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_uwg/englisch_uwg.html German Unfair Competition Act (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb - UWG)] and the [https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/uklag/ German Injunctive Relief Act (Unterlassungsklagegesetz - UKlaG]), to bring legal action before the civil courts for violations of information obligations pursuant to Article 12(1) GDPR in conjunction with Article 13(1)(c) and (e) GDPR, regardless of the specific violation