[:en]Published on 25.10.2012 a very important judgment of the Court of Justice which resolved an issue that had been open for several years. In fact, the European court was asked to decide on the possibility of an EU citizen, to be able appeal to the courts of the State in which it has its centre of interestsin order to claim compensation for the damage caused by the violation of one's rights to the person, by means of content placed on the web by a third party, via a website.

The Court was called upon to decide on two very similar issues:

- the first case had seen a German citizen, who had previously been convicted of murder and was later admitted to probation, apply to the German court for damages for content put online by an Austrian company, which infringed his personal rights;

- in the according toSimilarly, a French citizen sought an order to pay a sum of money against an English online newspaper that had published untrue information about him.

The Court of Justice, called upon to rule on these disputes, stated that there is the alternative course of action:

1. in the courts of the Member State where the person who has published the damaging content is established;

2. in the place where the injured party finds its centre of interest;

3. before the courts of any Member State on the territory of which anetworked information is accessible or has been accessible.

The judgment reasoned its decision on the basis of Article 5(3) of the Regulation (EC) 44/2001regulating, among other things, jurisdiction in the European context.

This rule, in fact, states that 'a person domiciled in one Member State may be sued in another Member State in matters relating to tort, delict or quasi-delict, in the courts for the place where the harmful event occurred or may occur. "

Very interesting this judgement and certainly not insignificant, which gives certainty in another situation of violation of personal rights in the field meta-territorial, i.e. through the use of the web platform.

 

 

 

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