Defamation on the Internet in Germany and Italy. Comparing legal systems

Some time ago I addressed the issue, now of general interest, of the legal consequences in the case of defamation via the Internet.

I would like to briefly recall that the Court of Livorno recently ruled on this point, giving rise to a new orientation jurisprudential. The  Court decided the conviction of a woman for "defamation", with the aggravating circumstance ".print media"for insulting his former employer on his Facebook profile.

On this issue, the Court of German Supreme Courtwhich stated in a recent judgment of 17.12.2013 that a violation of a person's rights through an internet publication has the same value as a press violation.

According to the judges of Karlsruheviolation of a person's right is also considered to be violated if a person puts harmful material on the Internet and that material is then disseminated by third parties. 

The comparison of the two rights does not have a purely theoretical value, but a strongly practical one. Consider the example where:

an Italian puts material on the net that infringes the rights of a German citizen resident in Germany. The question arises as to whether the latter has the right to sue the Italian in a German court and request the application of German law to resolve the dispute.

Regarding jurisdiction, i.e. which court is competent to decide on the case, one is reminded of the ruling of the Court of Justice of 25.10.2012 by which it granted the aggrieved party the possibility of bringing an action before the court where it has its centre of interests.

As regards the applicable law, however, the general principle of the Rome II Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations, which in Article 4 provides that it is applicable the law 'of the country in which the damage occurs irrespective of the country in which the event giving rise to the damage occurred and irrespective of the country or countries in which the indirect consequences of that event occur.”

In the present case, therefore, a German citizen whose personal rights have been violated by a publication put online by an Italian citizen, whose residence is in Italy, could potentially sue the latter in Germany, requesting the application of German law.