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Arguing Facebook violated privacy rules, Max Schrems is claiming
500 euros ($576) in damages for each of some 25,000 signatories
to his lawsuit, one of a series of European challenges to U.S.
technology firms and their handling of personal data.
"A consumer who is entitled to sue his foreign contact partner
in his own place of domicile, cannot invoke, at the same time as
his own claims, claims on the same subject assigned by other
consumers," the EU top court's Advocate General Michal Bobek
said.
The advocate general, whose opinions are not binding but usually
followed by the court, said allowing a class action suit in this
case would lead consumers to choose the place of the most
favorable court.
Privacy activist Schrems, who had argued that individual
lawsuits on user privacy would be "impossible" due to the
financial burden on users, said a ruling in line with the
advocate general's opinion would still allow him to set a
precedent.
"In the advocate general's view, I can at least bring a 'model
case' at my home jurisdiction in Vienna, which may enable us to
debate the illegal practices of Facebook in an open court for
the first time," Schrems said in a statement.
Facebook said the advocate general's opinion supported the
decision of two courts that Schrem's claims could not proceed as
a class action.
While common in the United States, class action suits are rarely
recognized in Europe.
"It is not for the Court to create such collective redress in
consumer matters, but eventually for the Union legislator," the
Advocate General said.
(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; additional
reporting by Shadia Nasralla in Vienna; editing by Philip
Blenkinsop and John Stonestreet)
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