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Soriano v Forensic News LLC & Ors [2021] EWHC 56 (QB) engages ia the jurisdictional implications of the GDPR (this post focuses solely on the data protection claim). Claimant  (habitually resident in the UK) sues in relation to ten internet publications and various social media postings including on Facebook and on Twitter. He relies on various causes of action including data protection, malicious falsehood, libel, harassment and misuse of private information. Defendants are all domiciled in various US States.

The Brussels Ia Regulation is not engaged; the GDPR is. (On the partial overlap and conflict between BIa and the GDPR see my paper here). A79 GDPR reads

“Right to an effective judicial remedy against a controller or processor

1. 1. Without prejudice to any available administrative or non-judicial remedy, including the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority pursuant to Article 77, each data subject shall have the right to an effective judicial remedy where he or she considers that his or her rights under this Regulation have been infringed as a result of the processing of his or her personal data in non-compliance with this Regulation.
   2. Proceedings against a controller or a processor shall be brought before the courts of the Member State where the controller or processor has an establishment. Alternatively, such proceedings may be brought before the courts of the Member State where the data subject has his or her habitual residence, unless the controller or processor is a public authority of a Member State acting in the exercise of its public powers.”

At 45-47 the ‘establishment’ issue is not much discussed for the claimant at any rate meets with the habitual residence gateway. Focus of the discussion is on A3’s territorial scope provisions (I am not sure I agree with the suggestion at 46 that A79 logically comes before consideration of A3). Reference is made to Google Spain, Weltimmo and  Verein fur Konsumerentenininformation- see also my review with Yuliya Miadzvetskaya here. The European Data Protection Board’s Guidelines 3/2018 on the Territorial Scope of the GDPR are then turned to to consider targeting, processing and ‘related to’ per A3(2) GDPR.

At 60, Claimant’s case on A3 (2)(a) is set out as arguing that the Defendants, to the extent that they are data controllers, offer services to readers in the UK irrespective of payment. As for A3.2(b), it is contended that the website places cookies on readers’ devices and processes their personal data using Facebook and Google analytics for the purpose of targeting advertisements, with Facebook Ireland Ltd and Google Ireland Ltd operating as the registered joint data controller. Further, it is submitted (By Greg Callus – the same counsel as in the Court of Appeal judgment in Wright v Grannath which I reported yesterday) that the Defendants were collecting and obtaining data about the Claimant and were monitoring his behaviour within the UK and the EU with a view to making publishing decisions.

Justice Jay held claimant has no real prospect of success on either (a) or (b). At 64 ff: the ‘journalistic endeavour’ complained of is not oriented towards the UK in any relevant respect; as for article 3.2(a), there is nothing to suggest that the First Defendant is targeting the UK as regards the goods and services it offers; as for article 3.2(b), at 68

First Defendant’s use of cookies etc. is for the purpose of behavioural profiling or monitoring, but that is purely in the context of directing advertisement content. There is no evidence that the use of cookies has anything to do with the “monitoring” which forms the basis of the Claimant’s real complaint: the Defendant’s journalistic activities have been advanced not through any deployment of these cookies but by using the internet as an investigative tool. In my judgment, that is not the sort of “monitoring” that article 3.2(b) has in mind; or, put another way, the monitoring that does properly fall within this provision – the behavioural profiling that informs advertising choices – is not related to the processing that the Claimant complains about (assuming that carrying out research online about the Claimant amounts to monitoring at all).

(Obiter, at 69, it is held that had the good arguable case succeeded, the claim would have withstood a forum non conveniens argument).

At 112 ff the jurisdictional case for libel is upheld.

An interesting illustration of the unsettled nature of jurisdictional claims under the GDPR.

Geert.

EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, Heading 2.2.9.2.5, para 2.258 ff.

 

#GDPR, jurisdiction, merits test and forum non
Claimant represented by @Greg_Callus
On the A79 GDPR issue discussed in the judgment, see my paper here https://t.co/bjIRmMejB3 https://t.co/FJEpJ3nOy2

— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) January 15, 2021

 

He Qisheng, Professor of International Law, Peking University Law School, and Chairman at the Peking University International Economical Law Institute, has published the 7th Survey on Chinese Practice in Private International Law.

This survey contains materials reflecting the practice of Chinese private international law in 2019. First, this paper describes the judiciary’s caseload: Chinese courts decided some 17,000 foreign-related civil and commercial cases, 16,000 maritime cases and 9,648 requests for judicial assistance in 2019. Regarding changes in the statutory framework of private international law, four legislative acts, one set of Regulations and six Supreme People’s Court (SPC) Judicial Interpretations were adopted or amended in 2019 on investment contracts, action preservation in intellectual property, punitive damages, etc. Second, eight typical cases on jurisdictional issues are selected, including jurisdiction clauses, parallel proceedings, and res judicata. Third, seven new representative cases on choice of law relating, in particular, to international transport, force majeure, gambling debts and public order, are examined. Fourth, five cases on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and one SPC Opinion in favour of presumed reciprocity are briefly examined. Finally, this paper also covers seven key cases which reflect the latest development in Chinese private international law on other procedural issues, such as service of process abroad and authentication, and three cases on international arbitration (including the first decision rendered by the China International Commercial Court).

Here are the links to the article:

·         Abstract:
https://academic.oup.com/chinesejil/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/chinesejil/jmaa032/6032845

·         Article (free access):
https://academic.oup.com/chinesejil/advance-article/doi/10.1093/chinesejil/jmaa032/6032845?guestAccessKey=02dcf09b-8bd6-4af4-bc02-9bf523212c37

The European Association of Private International (EAPIL) will host its Second Virtual Seminar on 27 January 2021, 5 to 7 pm (MET). Devoted to the digital teaching of Private International Law and its challenges in Corona times, the Seminar will present tools that may help to improve the digital teaching of our discipline and discuss pervasive problems from the perspective of both professors/lecturers and students.

The Seminar will be structured into two parts. The first part will focus on the perspective of professors/lecturers and the challenges of teaching Private International Law in digital formats. Speakers will be Morten Midtgaard Fogt (University of Aarhus) and Marion Ho-Dac (Polytechnic University of Hauts-de-France, Valenciennes). The second part will take the students’ perspective and discuss different digital teaching tools. Speakers will include Susanne Lilian Gössl (University of Kiel), María-Asunción Cebrián Salvat, Isabel Lorente Martínez and Javier Carrascosa González (all three University of Murcia).

The Seminar will be held via Zoom. If you wish to join, please register here by 25 January 2021 at noon. Registered participants will receive the details to join the Seminar on 26 January 2021.

For more information regarding the Second EAPIL (Virtual) Seminar, please write an e-mail to Susanne Gössl at sgoessl@law.uni-kiel.de.

For information regarding the EAPIL Seminar Series as such please get in touch with the EAPIL Secretary General, Giesela Rühl, at secretary.general@eapil.org.

Background:

The EAPIL (Virtual) Seminar Series seeks to contribute to the study and development of (European) Private International Law through English-language seminars on topical issues. It will provide an easily accessible and informal platform for the exchange of ideas – outside the bi-annual EAPIL conferences. At the same time, it will serve as a means for EAPIL members to connect with other EAPIL members and non-members.

2021 will be a milestone for the International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS). Driven by a powerful internationalisation movement, the new internal regulation of ICCS entered into force on 1 January 2021.

I have interviewed Nicolas Nord, the Secretary General of ICCS, on the Commission’s work, functioning and challenges.

— Can you remind us what the ICCS is and the scope of its activities?

The ICCS is an international organisation created in 1949. The seat is in Strasbourg, in France. Its objectives are to facilitate international co-operation in civil-status matters and to further the exchange of information between civil registrars. A practical approach has always been privileged. The idea is to deal with concrete issues that arise in the daily activity of national authorities.

To achieve the general aims, the ICCS draws up normative instruments. 34 international conventions and 11 recommendations have been adopted till today. Comparative law studies are also carried out. The goal is always the same: harmonizing the provisions in force in the member States on matters relating to the status and capacity of persons, to the family and to nationality and improving the operation of civil-status departments in those States.

It materializes in different ways and has given rise to the creation of original methods. This is the case with multilingual civil status forms which allow any State authority to understand an act issued in another State Party, without having to face the problem of translation. It is an essential tool that also makes life easier for individuals. This is why Convention n° 16 has been so successful. It is in force in 24 States. Uniform acts such as certificates of matrimonial capacity (convention n° 20) or of life (convention n° 27) have also been created. There are the same in all the States parties. Another aspect is cooperation between authorities. Different conventions allow a direct international communication between the civil registrars. This allows for simplified updating of civil status documents in the various States Parties (convention n°3, 23 and 26).

The ICCS also compiles and keeps up to date a documentation on legislation and case-law setting out the law of the member States on the matters falling within its field of competence and provides, on the basis of that documentation, information to the national authorities.

— The ICCS recently adopted a new internal regulation. Can you tell us more about it?

The will of the member States is to modernize the organisation, to adapt it to new challenges and to make it more attractive. Some essential reforms have thus been introduced. Three examples may be given. English becomes the second official language of the organisation, alongside French. Membership is no longer reserved for states but also open, from now on, to any international organisation, any regional economic integration organisation and any other international entity. Membership procedure has been simplified. An approval by the General Assembly is the only requirement.

— What’s in it for the European Private International Law community?

The birthplace of ICCS is in Europe. Most of our members are European. Our instruments are in force in many European countries, although there is of course no geographical limitation. Our desire by introducing a second official language is to allow non-French speaking countries, European or not, to join us in order to work together. We also want to allow the EU to join us.

We have been working with the European Commission for many years now. The cooperation agreement between our two institutions was concluded in 1983. The adoption of the “public documents” regulation, now in force, clearly reflects this cooperation since the methods invented by the ICCS, such as multilingual forms or the coding of civil status forms, have been used in it. However, the instruments of the EU and the ICCS now coexist in Europe. It is a source of complexity and is not always well understood by practitioners. That is why we would like to strengthen our links with the EU.

— Some scholars have recently expressed their worries about the future of the ICCS (here). What do you think?

We fully understand their concern. It is a reaction to the surprising withdrawal of France. There is a risk of disappearance of the organisation if all the States adopt the same attitude of course.This would be prejudicial for the States themselves and for the practitioners of civil status. The reform of the ICCS internal regulation is precisely a reaction to such concerns, in order to make the organisation more attractive and to ensure its sustainability. Our wish is to convince new member states, new international entities to join us and to allow a return of our former members. 

— What are the ICCS’ work forecasts and challenges ahead?

 In September 2021, we are organising a conference on our flagship convention, the convention n° 16. Our wish is to establish a kind of diagnosis and to see what works well, gives satisfaction to the practitioners but also to detect the problems which appeared since 1976, date of its adoption. This is an exciting prospect. Having such feedback will be very enriching, both for the States Parties, the civil registrars and the organisation itself.

In addition to working on the substance of the matter, we want to make our organisation known, highlight its instruments which have demonstrated their effectiveness in practice and convince new States and international organisations to join us, by becoming members or by adopting our instruments.

As a conclusion, I would like to thank Nicolas for the very interesting light he has shed on the ICCS central mission for States and regional organisations such as the European Union to pursue and perhaps even step up their work on the key-issue of civil status for mobile citizens. Let us wish that the ICCS’ makeover will lead to a greater European and international cooperation in the field of civil status in the near future!

Please note that Nicolas is available to answer any questions that fellow blog readers may have on the ICCS.

En cas de surpopulation carcérale, il importe de tenir compte de la surface personnelle du détenu, et de procéder à l’examen global d’un ensemble de facteurs afin d’apprécier le caractère indigne des conditions de détention.

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