Vienna Higher Court Confirming Damages Claim Against Facebook

On 07.12.2020 (served on 28.12.2020), the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht Wien, OLG) delivered its ruling in the appeal proceedings Schrems v Facebook Ireland Ltd. (GZ 11 R 153 / 20f, 154 / 20b).¹ Confirming the decision of the Regional Court for Civil Matters (Landesgericht für Zivilrechtssachen), it held that the social media platform was under a duty to provide the Plaintiff with full access to the data held about him, thus requiring the corporation to pay compensation of EUR 500 (Article 82 GDPR).

Nevertheless, it also concluded that the act of data processing does not require the platform to obtain an unambiguous, separate consent from its users pursuant to EU data protection law (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), but that such a right of data use is inherently granted to Facebook by virtue of its contractual terms and conditions.